After all of these years traipsing around Europe—well, strictly speaking, I spent a few hours in Asia one day waiting for a ferry back to Istanbul, but otherwise the Europhilia is quite real—it annoys me to remain monolingual.
English is my first and only language, and although there’s no denying the efficacy of English given its undisputed status among the planet’s non-native speakers as being their most desired second tongue, I feel as if I’ve failed.
I’d have made a rotten expatriate in Trieste. Did James Joyce ever learn to speak Italian, Slovenian or Habsburg?
If given the chance for that rarest of human events, a do-over, I’d probably opt for a more sustained effort to speak at least some vaguely conversational German. As it stands, I know enough German to say hello and goodbye, count a bit, comprehend basic directions, and decipher restaurant menus and beer labels.
The latter gives rise to further reflection, because the notion of language, or those “words used in a structured and conventional way and conveyed by speech, writing, or gesture” as a shared system of communication, suggests I may be multilingual after all.
Does it count to speak Beer?
I offer “Beer” in a broad and vernacular sense, as with a regional dialect or street slang. Grammar is less a factor than passion and inflection. Speaking for myself, I lack the technical jargon and scientific background to speak Brewhouse Beer, which is like a formal academic language.
Naturally one might speak both.
A real-world linguistic example can be found in Greece, where Dimotiki (Demotic) Greek is the everyday language, while Katharevousa Greek is the formal, academic tongue. Assuming you are Greek and know both, Katharevousa isn’t the way to order food and drink at the waterfront café.
Speaking ordinary everyday Beer needn’t imply proficiency as a trained beer judge or cicerone. Rather, you’re able to look at the draft list at Pearl Street Taphouse or Holy Grale and grasp the stylistic intent and overall vibe even if you’ve never heard of the specific brewery.
Beer-speak means being sufficiently worldly to wander into just about any on-premise bar, tavern, taproom, Gaststätte or cerveceria, anywhere in the world, and intuitively know how to get hold of a beer and a snack, and make oneself at...Read more
