East Frisians are everywhere.

Kurz vor Weihnachten kam ueber die European club mailing list der Hilferuf eines Studenten, der fuer seinen Deutschkurs als Abschlussarbeit ein Interview in Deutsch u.a. ueber die 68er zu fuehren. Ich hatte mich fuer ein 10min Gespraech bereit gestellt und wir haben das dann gemacht. Nun gekam ich nach einigen Wochen Post von dem Dozenten, der den Kurs geleitet hat. Er fragte mich, ob ich auch fuer andere Studenten zur Verfuegung stehen wuerde. Er schliesst sein nettes Schreiben uebrigens mit dem Hinweis, das Ur-Grosseltern von ihm auch aus Ostfriesland kommen.


Dear Focko Meier,

I'm writing to ask a favor because you did such a good job of serving as an interview partner for Steve Otterman as part of a German-class assignment last December. [DANKE]

I was so impressed with the quality of your contribution (linguistically, but above all as a cultural informant) that I asked Mr. Otterman for your name and address so that I could inquire whether you might help with another class this spring. [SUPER, ICH SPRECHE GUTES DEUTSCH]

Would you be willing to once again serve as an interview partner with a fourth-semester student (at about Mr. Otterman's level) but this time on the topic of media usage? The course is an introduction to literary studies (Texte und Kontexte). At the moment, we are collecting information from German-speaking members of the Cornell community who do not work directly in literary studies about their leisure reading habits (or use of other media, such as internet, dvd, mp3, as opposed to books).

If you would be willing to help us again with this topic, I would give your name and address to a student who would contact you to set up a 10-min. interview sometime in the next two weeks. If you would be willing to help, please write me back to confirm your interest.

Many thanks and best wishes,
Brent

Douglas Brent McBride
Senior Lecturer
German Studies

PS: I am prejudiced (in a positive way) toward East Frisians. One of my maternal great-grandmothers was from Ditzumer Verlaat, a small village on a dike near the Dutch border, and the corresponding maternal great-grandfather was from Logumer Vorwerk, just outside of Emden.