"Bungalow Legs" means that you will lose the ability to go upstairs! I can see what they mean... brilliant!
In a similar way, we should try not to neglect our German skills, whatever stage they are at! Because there's your warning ... stop doing things for a while and you might well get the German-learners equivalent of "Bungalow Legs" and find yourself slipping backwards horribly down die Treppe! Ouch.
I should know, because it happened to me. I was merrily learning German, I'd read lots of books, got a good vocabulary, knew lots of stuff, and when I'd nearly finished reading Winnie the Pooh in German I went into a shop and picked off the shelf a copy of the first Harry Potter book ... Harri Potter a Maen yr Athronydd.
[a] That was a big mistake. Because it was in Welsh.
[2] My second mistake was opening it and flicking through it.
[3] My third mistake was thinking " Cripes, this is a real bastard of a language ! I don't understand one single cotton-picking word. Crumbs.
[4] I there and then became determined to learn the blasted thing. That was my 4th mistake.
[5] Welsh is by far the most ridiculous language to learn bar none. It's a lifetime's work just learning how to look Welsh words up in the dictionary. Oh yes.Even getting to that point was a big mistake. My 5th actually.
[6] My 6th mistake was actually spending billions of hours getting to the stage where I could read grown-up Welsh books, understand a lot of what Welsh people said and even speak a stumbling and slowed-down version of Welsh.
[7] And here's the thing ... all through that I neglected German. And lo and behold, when I went back to finish reading the last bit of Winnie the Pooh ( Pu der Bär) I suddenly realised I had forgotten stacks and stacks of German words.
[8] Ouch !
So .... don't neglect your German ... it'll come back to bite you.
DON'T DEVELOP THOSE BUNGALOW LEGS
..and now, a sad, sad song .... it's WSH and the snappily-titled " Meine Freunde war im Koma und alles, was sie mir mitgebracht hat, war dieses lausige T-Shirt."
und ich krieg nur
ein lausiges T-Shirt,
das sagt:
du auch du auch
du auch du auch
auch du
du auch du auch
du auch du auch
auch du
Wir wollten alle gerne ein Souvenir
vom Tunnel-Ende
Aber du hattest selber viel Gepäck
und ich weiß, du hast nur zwei Hände
Aber gab's nicht irgendwas, das
sagt: Es ist okay,
irgendetwas, das uns zeigt,
es tut gar nicht weh
Und nicht
du auch du auch
du auch du auch
auch du
du auch du auch
du auch du auch
auch du
Auch ich wollte ein Souvenir
von Tunnel-Ende
Aber ich weiß, das weiße Licht rinnt
einem immer durch die Hände
So wie
du auch du auch
du auch du auch
auch du
Also ein Hemd und ohne Taschen,
aber ach, ich will mich nicht
beklagen,
vielleicht näh ich noch Taschen drauf
aber dann will ich's mit Fassung tragen
So wie
du auch du auch
du auch du auch
auch du
du auch du auch
du auch du auch
auch du
Meine Freundinn war im Koma
und ich krieg diese lausige Tasse
mit einem kleinen Loch im Boden
für alles, was ich auch nicht fassen kann
Und vorne drauf steht World's
best Mum
und World's best Wife
und World's best Friend
und hinten drauf steht kleingedruckt
dann noch
World's End
Da steht: du auch du auch
du auch du auch
auch du
du auch du auch
du auch du auch
auch du
Und ich hör noch, wie ich sag,
das warst nicht du
Ich glaub, die Frau im Auto
warst nicht du
Du nicht du nicht
du nicht du nicht
nicht du
Du nicht du nicht
du nicht du nicht
nicht du
In a previous life, or rather a previous blog, I did a wonderful thing. I wrote ... or rather, had a go at writing ..... a complete guide to looking up Welsh words in a dictionary. It took weeks for me to get back some semblance of my sanity, and several bottles of gin.
All you beginners out there will be thinking ... " What could possibly go wrong?"
Ha! You poor deluded numpties are in for a shock...... the Welsh language is especially designed to make it almost impenetrable to all outsiders, and trying to look words up in what they laughingly refer to as a dictionary can be, to say the least, trying.
For your delectation, I am going to try to recreate that terrific article, but with the added experience I have gained since .... negotiating that eponymous Rocky Road to Welsh! Here we go ....
Here's the scenario ..... you've got a Welsh word and you want to find out what it means.
The clever-arses always advise you to try to work out what it means from the context. Yeah, right! And I'm a spurgulent rimpletinker. So .....
You turn to your trusted dictionary ,and the bloody thing isn't in it. Here's a simple guide to what might have gone wrong......
[a] Maybe it's an obscure word .....try a succession of larger and larger dictionaries.
[b] If it starts with ch- you might be looking for it under c- which would be the wrong place.
[c] This also applies to rh- , ll- , ff- .
[d] Don't forget that a word with -ng- in it could have you looking in the wrong place.
[e] The word might have to have any possible mutation undone first.
[f] This is doubly tricky for some words beginning with f- which might begin with m- or b-
[g] This is easy to miss also when an invisible g- has to be restored to its rightful place.
[h] An "h" at the start might have been put there for a laugh ... especially after a vowel.
[h2] Sometimes adding -ach and -a in comparatives can change the spelling of the word.
[i] Maybe it's a bit of obscure Wenglish.
[j] Sometimes they like to miss the ys- off a word to keep you thinking.
[k] Maybe you're looking at some wild and wonderful part of a verb.
[l] Or perhaps you've forgotten that verbs-with-endings will tend to SM.
[m] It could be you are looking at one of those peculiar plurals they are so fond of. [n] In colloquial Welsh in books, deliberate mis- spelling is another source of amusement.
[o] Could be you have a conjugated preposition like "amdano" .... lovely!
[p] One of the best tricks in the "frontal apostrophe." [ or 'tal 'phe ]
[q] Of course, it might be a rude word, or too slangy. Yes, there are rude words in Welsh.
[r] You can pull some words apart and find out what the bits mean..... oh yes!
[s] If it has a prefix, you can remove it and try to find what's left ( remove SM first)
[t] Could it be a proper name or a place-name?
[u] If it's a group of words you don't get, maybe it's a an idiomatic usage.
[t] Some words have different male and female versions ....
[u] Sometimes a tricky word might combine several of these difficulties.
[v] There can be unfamiliar "literary" Welsh verb endings... never used in real speech.
[w] Sometimes you think a word is obviously Wenglish but it isn't !
[x ] You can always try ...
[a] Putting it into Google Translate
[b] Having a guess and looking it up in the English to Welsh section. ... it can work.
[c] Asking an actual Welsh speaker !
[d] Taking up a nice logical language like Spanish.
[e] Retiring to a monastery/nunnery .. it's easier, and calmer.