The Taylors in Europe

My New Year's resolution is to work extra hard on my German skills. We've hardly even unpacked, and I feel like our time here is speeding by too fast. When we arrived here, I thought I'd be much further along in my language skills by this point.

I bought myself a little New Year's present to help me with this resolution: Langenscheidt's Sprachkalender 2004: A Joke a Day. Three hundred sixty-five jokes set out in both English and in German! I figure if I keep up with my calendar, I'll be dazzlingly funny in both English and German in just one year.

Here's today's gem:

Eine Frau ruft ihren Mann auf der Arbeit an, um mit ihm zu plaudern. „Entschuldige, Liebling“, sagte er, „ich bin im Moment wirklich beschäftigt. Ich habe keine Zeit zum Reden.“

„Oh, es wird nicht lange dauern. Ich wollte dir nur sagen, dass ich gute und schlechte Nachritchten habe.“

„Sieh mal“, sagte er noch einmal, „ich habe wirklich zu tun. Erzähle mir doch nur die gute Nachricht.“

„Also“, sagte sie, „der Airbag funktioniert.“

And in English:

A woman phoned her husband at work for a chat. "Sorry, darling," he said, "'m really busy at the moment. I haven't got time to talk."

"Oh, this won't take long. It's just that I've got some good news and bad news."

"Look," he repeated, "I really am busy. Just give me the good news."

"Well," she said, "the air bag works."

Three hundred sixty-four days to a funnier, more fluent me!