She is a Boy!

Today I realised I have been saying "SHE is a BOY" to every Swiss who cared enough to ask me if my baby is a boy or a girl! 6 weeks crash course in German at the Goethe institute and you would think that they will teach you the difference between a boy and a girl! A man and a woman, YES! But not a boy and a girl! The first time someone asked me "mädchen oder junge", I thought "Männer is men in German and Jung is young and Jungfrau is a young girl/virgin. Hence Junge should mean a girl and "mädchen a boy and answered "Junge"! And the second time, I was prepared and answered "Junge" without having to solve an equation in my mind and quite did nt understand the stare as my baby was dressed all in pink! And then recently while buying cough drops for Ashu, the nice girl at the desk asked me the same question and I did nt get her at first and then she asked me in English "Boy or a girl! And I go "Oh! Sie ist Junge" flaunting the little German I know saying "She is a boy"! How stupid can I get? In my defence, I quote Mark Twain,

"My philological studies have satisfied me that a gifted person ought to learn English (barring spelling and pronouncing) in thirty hours, French in thirty days, and German in thirty years. It seems manifest, then, that the latter tongue ought to be trimmed down and repaired. If it is to remain as it is, it ought to be gently and reverently set aside among the dead languages, for only the dead have time to learn it."