At the Mennonite Heritage Centre coffee social last week, a conversation began about members of the group getting into mischief when they were children. There were some funny stories of mischief, but what really stood out was how clearly the group remembered being scolded by their mothers!
I was able to record a few phrases, but my German isn’t as good as I’d like so I need some help transcribing the recordings below. Can you help? Listen to Bruno and Elfrieda share what their mothers used to say and leave a comment if you can translate to English.
Here’s Bruno:
and here’s Elfrieda:
If your family has another expression for setting kids back on track, please share it with us in the comments.
Christiane Hinz says
Jo van Every just asked me via facebook to translate.
I am a german woman living in Scotland.
So I hope this will help
Elfrieda’s clip says:
Children don’t quarrel, rather spit in each other’s face.
Bruno’s clip says (the german part)
Children, children, faces like cattle, don’t quarrel rather spit in each other’s face.
That is quite interesting. I have been brought up in the middle of Germany, My father was from Berlin, my mother from Siegen. I have never heard this saying. It seems to me quite old fashioned. The man who was talking seemed to me to have a slitght Austrian or Bavarian accent.
Hope that helps
all the best
Christiane
Elfrieda Neufeld says
Pauss up!
Be careful!
But she never said WHY I should be careful!!
Another Facebook commenter says
My grandfather used to preach in high German to that Pennsylvania German farmers in Kutztown. That phrase has a familiar ring to me. I recall getting the explanation that arguing was vulgar so you may as well “spit in each other’s face”. The German farmers much preferred to live by “if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all.”