Last night, a substitute teacher asked her temporary (primary level, beginner, amateur, basic “Trinkst du Tee mit Milch?” skillz) students why it was they had chosen German to learn.

After almost six months of classes, this was the first time we had been asked this as a group.

The question bounced across the rows of desks and I shouldn’t have been surprised to hear that most students’ reasons were to do with love: an Austrian husband; a long-distance boyfriend in Bavaria; tangled family roots; a soon-to-be-son-in-law; newly-weds about to embark on a European adventure.

And then,

a dancer,

a musician (and her friend),

and a writer

for whom the language simply got under her skin.

(via The Literary Piano)