Germany Six - Text
The subject is a white male in his fifties, born 1950 in Hann Munden, Lower Saxony. He had been in Kansas for two years, working as a sales manager, when Paul Meier recorded him May 4, 2001. His English is fluent and heavily accented in the direction of American English. The subject spoke of being exposed to American language and culture from an early age, due to a large American military base near his home. He has also lived in England, Texas, Greece, Japan and Hong Kong. At the end of the recording he speaks in German for a short while. You will notice the strongly rhotic vowels and the rhythms and intonations of American English. Recorded and edited by Paul Meier, 05.04.01. Running time: 00:04:37
Transcription of Unscripted Speech
Well, I was born uh, August 26, 1950 in Han Munden, uh, let's say this way, former West Germany, because Germany now is reunited--reunited. Um, Germany is a small city of about 30,000 people live in there, and nobody actually knows it, so the rough uh, direction is it's right between Hanover and Frankfurt, that's 100 miles south of Hanover, and about 100 miles north of Frankfurt...and um, I grew up there and eh, after I finished uh, my college, school, college and everything, I started working for department store, I moved around Germany. First I was located in, stationed in, I was working in Dortmund, that's in the German main industrial area uh, later on I was working for Panasonic and I was moved around all over the country Munich, Stuttgart, Berlin, Hamburg um--oh I forgot to say after school, college, you know, I joined the German Air Force for about 4 years, not for exactly 4 years, and I was stationed in uh, Ft. Bliss, Texas, that's El Paso, I was stationed in Holland, I was stationed in Greece, that's um on the island of Crete...and uh..in Beja, Portugal and Decimomannu, in Sardegna which belongs to uh, Italy. So I was in--in the German Air Force, I was red operator, I was not flying personal. And later on I started a career as a businessman, I was 10 years working for Panasonic as a branch office manager, later on I got uh, president um, job for an English Hong-Kong Chinese company called Celestion, everybody who knows something about music uh, knows a lot about Celestion, the biggest loudspeaker manufacturer. And now I'm in the States, I'm working for uh, Business Solutions um..uh..operation uh..as an area manager, sales manager for the Kansas area. Okay, that's roughly who I am, what I did, where I'm born and--
[Interviewer]:
Tell--tell for a little bit about your first exposure to English
[Germany 6]:
Well, my first exposure to English was uh, so my hometown was close to an American uh, army base, a more army security agency, those people listening to the radio conversations of the former east block, and I grew up with kids, so my basic vocabulary, my basic--my grammar and basic vocabulary were learned in school and--and I added my little American slang when, in early days already hanging around with American kids of the soldiers. And, later on of course uh, I final--I--well let's--I got better at school and, during my business, even my Air Force time, I was almost stationed together with NATO troop, that means my, my...military language which was mostly English. Then working for Panasonic, mostly English later on for the Hong-Kong/Chinese company uh..was English, and so, I was actually as much involved in English as I was involved with German.
[Speaks German]
Unscripted Speech Transcribed by Faith Harvey 17 March 2008