City of Hullture

By the Humber

You might have heard that Hull has put forward a bid to become City of Culture 2017. Today, team Hull gives its final presentation to the committee of judges in Derry to convince them to crown Hull the winner over the competitors Swansea Bay, Dundee and Leicester. It’s pretty big news all over the local papers and on my Facebook feed. The bid has created quite a buzz in the area. If Hull wins, the council has promised £15m worth of cultural events and for one year Hull would be in the media in a positive light and not just as the flagship of various lists about what is wrong with Britain. A pretty good opportunity and everyone is getting really excited.

Hull's Landmark: The Deep

Now, when a city like Hull applies to become City of Culture, the snobs and cynics start crawling out of their caves. Hull for City of Culture? Maybe they should change the title 'City of Culture' to 'Best Poor City in the UK'. You don't see Oxford or Cambridge wanting it! It’s true, Hull isn't Oxford but it isn't that hell hole some people want you to believe it is either. I don’t think it is about who has the oldest buildings and the fanciest museums (nothing against either, I love Oxford and London). I like to think of City of Culture 2017 as an award that honours the willingness to change for the better. I’d love to see Hull win and find the idea behind it laudable. To get a bit of a feel for it you should check out the video made to support Hull’s City of Culture bid.

Museums Quarter in Old Town

Okay, the video is a little bit cheesy but Hull has been making an effort to change its reputation for the better. It’d be great if for once its media coverage would focus on its achievements and not just its flaws. We have lots of nice museums, a fantastic art gallery, some of the nicest pubs I've ever been to, several theatres, one river and one estuary, a beautiful red-brick uni, the deepest aquarium in Europe, a little marina, tons of independent shops, various festivals throughout the year, many cosy cafes, a lively music scene, numerous parks, loads of history to explore and an admirable, ever-driving urge to improve.

There is one bit in the video that stuck with me: Hull's “end of the line sense of freedom”. In Hull, trains don't woosh through the station. They have to stop and turn around to continue their journey. When I first moved here, Hull's literal end-of-the-line location was suffocating to me. But I’ve come to appreciate that sense of arrival you get when the Humber Bridge comes into view shortly before your train pulls into the station. Hull is my basecamp now and I have my fingers crossed for it.

The winner will be announced 20th November!

Learning English with Tea and Biscuits

Victorious Fig Roll

I used to be so excited about the sound of the English language as a kid. I’d make up my own pretend-English before school forced the real thing on me. 20 years later and I’m alright at it but there’s always more to learn. Three months ago I started keeping track of the slightly bizarre expressions I come across living in Yorkshire. I think I’m ready now to add another four to the list.

namby-pamby
I learnt this melodic expression while discussing what properties are most important in our biscuits.
It means:
1. lacking in character or substance
2. weak, indecisive
Apparently fig rolls are proper biscuits and not of the namby-pamby kind like rich teas. I wish more of the world was explained with the help of biscuits. And what I wouldn’t give for some namby-pamby biscuits to go with my tea right now…

Do you want out? 
I get asked this at work a lot when somebody is about to go to Sainsburys: “Anyone want out?” When I heard it the first time, images of careless world exploration and escaping the mind numbing routine that is full-time employment crossed my mind. Unfortunately, the best thing you’ll get out of this offer is a chocolate bar (maybe even a Crunchie?) or biscuits to dunk in your tea. It merely translates as: “Do you want me to bring you anything from the shop?”

Nah, you’re alright.
The strange answer you get when you offer to do something for someone and they decline.
“Do you want another cup of tea?” - "Nah, you’re alright."
It still doesn’t make much sense to me why you would put it like that. To me it sounds a lot like: “I will only drink the tea of my enemies!"

Dinner/Tea/Lunch
A foreigner will learn that lunch is the meal you have around noon, dinner is what you eat in the evening and tea time is somewhere around 4pm... right? Welcome to the English Guess the Mealtime-phenomenon where dinner can sometimes be lunch however, lunch will always be lunch but tea can mean dinner as well as 4pm tea time. So “What are you doing for dinner?” could also mean “What are you having for lunch?” and “What’s for tea?” can mean “What are we having for dinner?” Okay then...

Discovering the English Language in Yorkshire

Accent-wise, I’m definitely a southern girl. At school I was taught to speak RP English also known as the Queen’s English or Oxford English and I kept this up during my time at uni. I can occasionally lapse into regional dialects, drop my T’s and call a glass a “gless” but when asked how to properly pronounce something I will always revert back to RP.

It's incredibly rewarding to be so comfortable with the grammar of a language that all that remains is to add vocabularies and expressions and learn how to use them properly. For me, that’s when learning English became the most fun! This learning process is pretty much infinite and also applies to my first language. There is an inexhaustible supply of words and phrases I have never heard of before. It's quite exciting!

Living in Hull is great for picking up new words. There are a few terms and expressions I’ve come across since I moved to Yorkshire that were either entirely new to me or that suddenly took on a new meaning. I should add that not all of them are exclusive to Hull or Yorkshire!

1. grim 

Urban Decay Doesn't Have to Be Grim

A wonderful word I came across very often when walking through Hull for the first few times. Whenever you wanted to get somewhere nice you had to go through an area that was “a bit grim”. But a little bit of urban decay makes for some lovely photo opportunities!

2. gozzing 
I find saying the word about as satisfying as it is disgusting witnessing someone do it! For those not familiar with it: goz is nasal or oral mucus. So you might be able to guess what "gozzing in the street" means. The first time I heard this word I was watching An Idiot Abroad and it must have made a big impression on me because I still remember it. Gozzzz...

3. “It’s doing me head in.”
Meaning: to confuse, annoy or make somebody unhappy. A few examples of things that do my head in: having to adjust American recipes to British or German measurements, too many hazelnuts and not enough Brazil nuts in my mixed nuts snack and rocket science. I’ve never heard this being said in the South, which is a shame. It is such a lovely expression that includes so many nuances of British melancholy.

4. ‘Ull 
This is how a truly local person pronounces Hull. For you fellow linguists out there, it’s pronounced /ʊl/. I don’t know why, but Hull folk don’t like the letter H. Sesame Street would not be amused. The lack of H can get confusing. One of my non-Hull friends was on her way to visit me. She was waiting for her train when someone approached her asking if this was the platform where the train to Ull stops. I can’t blame her for saying “No” and only figuring out her mistake a few minutes later.  
5. darling/luv/flower 
But it’s not all grim and goz! The train conductors on my way to work think I’m a darling. The random homeless person asking for some change calls me luv and the shop owner greets me with “Ya alright there, flower?” Giving strangers endearing pet names is a thing I came across more in the North and I quite like it. It might not be heartfelt but it’s welcoming!

6. tenfoot
Apparently, a tenfoot is a Hull word and while I roughly understand what it means I am not entirely sure what the difference between a tenfoot and an ordinary path is. The urban dictionary gives these two definitions:

• A footpath running between houses connecting two roads (orig. East Yorkshire). Also known as a 'cut'.
• A ten foot wide passageway located behind houses for access to garages.

What if it is 8 feet wide? Do cars have to be able to access it or are there pedestrian tenfoots? I have yet to find out...

7. minging
This isn’t a particularly northern expression but I first came across it when I was living in Leeds. I think it was used in regard to my cooking... undeservedly so! But what a beautiful all-round insulting yet inoffensive word it is, I just had to include it. I prefer being lazy and slurring it to "mingin’" rather than using the more clearly pronounced "minging". It has more punch.

8.  “Er ner! Whaaht waahn for me.”

Goat Becomes Gert

This isn’t a word but a sound: the seemingly most popular vowel in the Yorkshire vernacular. Think of the “er” in the word “nerd” and apply it whenever you see an “O”. “Oh no!” becomes “Er ner!”, “goat”” becomes “gert” etc. You get the idea. It is particularly Hull when combined with a word containing an “I”-sound such as “wine”. A person with a strong Hull accent will make “wine” sound like “waahn”. The linguist in me can get quite giddy listening to the Hull accent as I try and find the right linguistic patterns. It’s fascinating and probably every linguist’s heaven! However, aesthetics are debatable...

There are so many more words out there waiting to be discovered. If anyone knows any great ones (hint: I particularly like onomatopoeias) I'd love to hear them!

A Few Thoughts on the English Crazy

Living in the UK has made me much more aware of my own Germanness. Usually, it is in everyday situations that I notice it. I observe differences and similarities and pick what I like best from both worlds. It starts with the accent (I can say ‘squirrel’ just fine!) and includes drinking obscene amounts of tea. I cook a mean English breakfast, put vinegar on my chips and no longer stare at people in amazement when they only wear jeans and a t-shirt in January because the sun is shining. You got to think to yourself “What the hell!”, kick back, relax and find British strangeness endearing. So here are a few things that have made me go: “U English so crazy!”

The Toast Conspiracy
In England bread turns into toast as soon as you toast it. Before the toasting process it is just bread. The German equivalent is “Toastbrot” (literally “toast bread”). It’s white or brown, soft, pre-cut and solely made for the purpose of being toasted. It’s toast whether it has been toasted or not. We are a nation of bread eaters. For us it is not something you use as an excuse to eat Nutella. It’s a foodstuff in its own right and “Toastbrot” is just one of thousands of bread types... and not even a very good one. Any German who has left their former homeland will have had cravings for warm potato bread, an authentic pretzel or just “ein Normales” and not to forget some sweet Teilchen, hmm...

Black and White Opinions on Marmite
While your bread choice in England is limited, you have a whole range of spreads to choose from. You can keep it simple with salted butter. A rookie mistake made by unknowing foreigners from countries where salted butter isn’t very common (Hello, Germany!) is to have salted butter with sweet jam. My 11 year old self made that mistakes only once. Instead why not try some bitter orange marmalade? Again, poor 11 year old me was surprised by this novel flavour. It was cereal for the rest of the holiday for me! If you want to try something really English then thinly spread out some marmite on your hot toasted toast. Marmite is yeast extract and the only rule attached to it is that you have to have an opinion on it. It doesn’t matter whether you love or hate it as long as you can utter either of those two opinions with conviction. Being neither here nor there on the issue of Marmite is incredibly un-English. However, it seems a spread that only an English person can like. All that mimicking and I still can’t pretend Marmite is edible.

Everything Will Be Alright with Tea
Tea is England’s answer to any minor and major catastrophe... and at all other times when nothing else is happening. You had a bad day at work? Have a cuppa. The zombie apocalypse is descending upon us? Put the kettle on while we plan our next move. Have half an hour to spare and don’t know what to do? May we suggest tea? It seems one of those incredibly stereotypical things to say about England but I was made to have seven mugs of tea at work today and put the kettle on as soon as I got home. Sometimes I don’t even want any but make a cup anyway. My co-workers will have a cup and forget to drink it but as long as there is one within reach they feel like they can survive the day. You should avoid our office at times when we're out of milk. I even carry emergency tea bags in my bag with me at all times. Surely this can’t be right and I fully blame the English for turning me into such a crazy.

F*ck the Red Man
When you are a pedestrian in England be sure to ignore whether the traffic lights are green or red. You walk whenever you deem it safe to cross. After all you might save a whole ten seconds. Nobody cares about traffic lights. I have seen English police officers cross the road while the lights were red. Absolutely unthinkable in Germany! We Germans are taught to wait until the traffic lights tell you that you may now cross. At times I can find that rather relaxing especially in an unfamiliar city. I don’t have to observe the traffic and weigh up if my attempt to cross the road to save precious seconds will cost me my life. I just stand there and wait for the traffic light to tell me when it is safest to cross. In England you will stand there like a lemon while every other pedestrian rushes past you clearly with business that cannot be delayed. It makes you feel like an idiot and it won’t be long until you pick up that naughty habit yourself.

Cream
Be suspicious when an English person asks you if you want cream with your dessert. “Kuchen mit Sahne” is not quite the same here. The English don’t always bother with whisking the cream or adding sugar to it. You just pour the liquid cream over your cake. After an initial frown I tried it and it’s absolutely fantastic with hot apple pie.

I will be adding to this list as time passes but you might have guessed from my food-related observations that I’m rather famished.

So for now:
Bye bye und Tschö mit ‘ö’!