"J’étais en prison"
(I was in prison)

As I related yesterday, I was reluctant to narrate the audio book version of Much Ado About Corona. The biggest obstacle was the French, Ojibwe and German (FOG for short) dialogue and words scattered throughout the book. While I'm adept enough at Spanish, Italian and even Sanskrit, my tongue has quasi-zero skill with these three languages.

Many moons ago, I began preparing. I organized all the FOG verbiage from the novel into a file with links to audio samples to rehearse each day. Also, each week, Wolfgang Pfenning patiently helps me produce a passable German Ü sound, when he delivers my grocery order from Pfenning's Organic & More (the "& More" part refers to German lessons)...

En plus, I've hassled many French Canadian friends to help me swallow a ton of consonants.

All this practice has enabled me to now visit Germany, and tell anybody I meet that "Ich glaub mein Schwein pfeift" (I think I hear my pig whistling). Likewise, when trying to pass customs in France, I can proudly say, "J’étais en prison" (I was in prison). All very useful phrases.

I had a big challenge. I broke it down into manageable components. And I worked on it each day — as you can see in this video (which even includes me singing a few lines from a German Lied featured throughout the novel).

Stay sane, stay real,
John C. A. Manley

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