Bitte was? An American author's misadventures in the German language

by Lawrence D. Elliott

Overview

Lawrence D. Elliott is an American author, whose work has appeared in many popular books and publications, including 4 books in the best-selling Chicken Soup for the Soul series. Now he tackles the language of German in this humorous story of how he struggled to relearn the language, after being away from it for over 20 years. No one is off limits when it comes to poking a bit of fun, not even the author.

The author is not a teacher or professor. This is not a language book or a dry instruction manual. His world is not the clean or pristine environment of a classroom, where you'd hear perfect German spoken from professional performers. (Who speaks perfectly in any language?)

He writes about the real world and what he's encountered as he struggled to relearn German, one of the world's most difficult languages. Hopefully, you won't make the same mistakes he's made.

If you've ever taken a foreign language and tried to say something in "perfect" German (or French or Spanish or Mandarin), only to realize you made a terrible mistake, THIS STORY IS FOR YOU!

If you've ever said something that left the other person completely speechless or shocked, or you've said something you thought was a compliment, only to realize you said something extremely rude, THIS STORY IS FOR YOU!

Or maybe you're studying a language in school now and you want to understand what it's like to hold real conversations in the real world.

Then, THIS STORY IS FOR YOU!

*** FREE RESOURCES INCLUDED ***
There is a SPECIAL RESOURCES section at the end of this selection. Here, the author provides a special link to his website where you can use free tools he's discovered and has used that will actually help you improve your German. You should bookmark this page because he'll continue to add to it.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940016681566
Publisher:	Lawrence D. Elliott
Publication date:	01/24/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	23 KB

About the Author

Lawrence D. Elliott is an author, whose work has appeared in many popular books and publications, including 4 books in the best-selling Chicken Soup for the Soul series. His words can also be read at The Huffington Post, The Dean's Report, and Technorati. He has also been interviewed for such radio shows as The Daily Wrap from The Wall Street Journal with Michael Castner. Born in San Diego, California, Lawrence has had a very interested life.

At the age of eight, he found a dead infant in a neighbor's trashcan while playing with cousins. It was the very first time he realized you didn't have to be old to die: the cruelty of life could visit the very young, too.

In the early 1970's, his mother, his younger sister and he found themselves without a home in Hartford, CT after his father abandoned the family. He wasn't aware of it at the time, but he would learn a valuable lesson from his mom: hard work and perseverance are antidotes to adversity.

Two years later, he found himself among the first group of inner-city minority children bused to predominantly white schools. In addition to the racial turmoil caused by such a move, he was placed in a reading development class. It was humiliating and just another stretch of adversity he'd have to face. But through the help of an inspiring teacher who diligently worked to improve his reading skills, he discovered he could write. His life would never be the same again.

And the fact that she was white gave him yet another much-needed lesson, even through the turmoil that happened outside the classroom: wonderful people, just like imbeciles, come in all colors.

Lawrence has done every job from cleaning toilets to working with hot asphalt on hot summer days. He's served as a U. S. Air Force Security Policeman and he spent almost twenty years in real estate. But, thanks to a very special teacher, he understands he was born to be a writer.

Or, in his words, "I'm just a storyteller, telling my stories."