It's Raining in Hamburg

     I had the opportunity to watch a newscast in German without subtitles and was asked to explain what was happening.  I wish I knew.  I now realize how much I depend on language to tell the story.  The anchors were very somber and gave none of the story away with any kind of emotion.  The first story seemed to be about a businessman in trouble with the courts.  The second was a young man who was proud of something he did.  There was a military demonstration where people burned a flag and a military ceremony where someone was honored.  The only thing I really understood was that a winter storm was making the roads treacherous but it was going to be raining in Hamburg soon!
     When I turned the closed captioning on and watched the program again, it was very different.  The man in the courts was actually the former president of Germany who was in court for corruption charges. He was accused of taking a bribe from a friend. The man who was proud of something was actually a former pro football planned who announced that he was a homosexual.  His reasoning for coming out was so that younger players who are also gay would feel better about themselves.  The military ceremony that honored someone was actually honoring the German defense minister at his last post.  He was honored for his years serving his country.  The treacherous weather report was actually about the winter weather in the United States, not Germany as I had thought.  Nearly every assumption that I made was wrong.
     This assignment has shown me how little I really understand when I don't have my native language to explain things to me.  It was hard to get a mood or feeling from any of the news stories because of how somber the newscasters were.  It was all very subdued and serious, even her speaking voice was very monotone and free of any emotional clues as to the mood of the stories.  I realize how hard it must be for someone who does not know the language to understand what is going on in any situation.  I hope that I can be patient with foreigners that I will deal with in my professional life in the future.  Communication is such a large part of society, without it we are lost and handicapped.