Friday, April 6, 2012

What Are They Saying?

It's getting warmer. People are starting to think about making travel plans for later this summer. Some of those plans might include visiting Amish country.

I have heard from different people already who have enjoyed visiting Amish country but when stopping at Amish businesses or road side stands and heard them speaking to each other in Pennsylvania Dutch they felt certain they were talking about them.

We were reminded about that yesterday when LV and one of his friends had to go to an Amish metal fabricating business to pick some things up. (The people working there did not know LV could understand what they were saying.) While there, a few of the workers were talking in Pennsylvania Dutch. LV's friend, like so many other non-Amish immediately was curious and a little uncomfortable thinking that they were talking about him.

As soon as they left he asked LV what they had been saying.  One of them had asked the other if he had remembered to order certain parts. Another had said that someone had stopped in with a catalog of their products and he had placed it on the front desk.

Nothing interesting, and certainly not talking about the customer. While customers are always welcome and they enjoy visiting with them, no one in the back ground will be talking about them.

So if you have planned a trip to Amish country. Relax and enjoy every minute of it and if you hear them speaking in Pennsylvania Dutch you can smile and know they are not talking about you.

12 comments:

  1. What!?? I just assumed they were talking about how cute I was - there goes that theory. :)

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  2. This is true. Sorry Beth to burst your bubble.

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  3. are you sure they never talk about those that can't (they think) understand them? Hmmmm....

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  4. That is good to know about the Amish because I had met a girl at church who was Mexican. She worked in a Mexican Restaurant and she said that the Mexican men would talk about the female customers and make comments about them. At that time I remember them talking to me and I had no idea what they were saying. Who knows what they said!

    Happy Easter!
    Jesus is Alive!
    Angela

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  5. Life of a plainlady, I won't go as far and say that it has never happened but I think it's safe to say that 99% of the time it does not. The Amish simply are not nearly as fascinated with the public as the public is with the Amish.

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  6. Thanks for sharing. We have a few Amish farms north of us and we were passing one day and they were out in the field gathering hay. Of course they were doing it by hand and the hay rack was pulled by horses. We pulled over on the highway and I took a few pictures. However after I learned a little more about the Amish I did not ever use those for anything, not even my cards. I would never want to go against the way someone believes.
    until next time... nel

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  7. It just goes to show, we're not quite as fascinating as we'd like to think we are.

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  8. Could be that such visitors expect others to be as they are -- therefore expecting to see a reflection of how they would act. We live in an area that has a high Hispanic population. I would no more think of them speaking of me in Spanish than LV would expect that from the Amish. I do have a small envy for the multi-language capability!

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  9. Taking a trip to visit family who happens to live in PA Dutch country but not the heavily commercialized Lancaster area. Hoping to go shopping in a few of their stores where I can find home-made things and decent prices. Just so much more enjoyable to shop there. Our friends are drivers for the Amish and seem to know everyone .. makes for fun visiting along the way! Are they talking about us? I doubt it! I suppose people who have a habit of gossiping might fear this, but how would the PA Dutch know who can and can't understand them? They have much more important things to do than talk about their customers!

    Have a blessed Resurrection Sunday!

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  10. This reminds me of something that happened to my mother - who dearly deserved it! My mom, to put it nicely, was a piece of work. This child of German immigrants resented anyone who didn't speak English in public. (She even lectured a Welsh shop keeper in Abergavany!) Anyway, we were in an elevator, and two people in the corner were speaking Spanish. My mother started in on her if-you-live-here-speak-English lecture, and the gentleman turned around and said, in perfect, unaccented English, "I was speaking to my wife. If I had been addressing you, madam, I would have spoken English", and went right back to his conversation.

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  11. We're going to Amish Country this summer. I'm counting down the days now (12 to go!). I wonder if we can understand some words of Pennsylvanian Dutch. We speak Flemish (some form of Dutch) and we understand a lot of words in German. Pennsylvanian Dutch is a form of Swiss German dialect? I could at least understands some words in your bedtime song. Is it something like 'I'm tired, I'm going to sleep again. I'm going to close my eyes and leave them with God. It's his eyes that are above my bed, that are guarding me.'

    Goedele

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  12. Don't the Amish have a big rule against talking about someone else? I read something once that some won't even speak of someone who isn't in the room, just to guard against accidental gossip. Hmm....now that I've typed that all out, it may have been Orthodox Jews I was reading about. Well, a good rule anyway!

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment. I love hearing your thoughts.