“Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly-sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.”
Do you remember this quote? It’s from ‘You’ve got Mail’ with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
I came across this quote again the other day and it reminded me of the time when I started Angelika’s German Tuition & Translation. I had the name in place but was looking for a logo – and I couldn’t think of one. People told me to use a German map or the German flag, but there are already loads of businesses/websites who use just that. So I thought about resources. What do I use for both, teaching and translating? Answer: pens and pencils. And the image of a bouquet of sharpened pencils came to my mind.
When I teach, I use my pen or pencil to write things down and most of my planning still gets done on paper. My students also make notes with their pens and pencils (so far only one of my students makes electronic notes). Although any translations get done on the computer; when I’m in the middle of translating you’ll find loads of pieces of paper with keywords and phrases scribbles on spread all over my desk. No wonder I used pencils as my logo.
When the new school year started last month children arrived with their newly sharpened pencils and colouring pencils, and the same applied to all my German classes – although not many of my adults bring colouring pencils 🙂
Do you still use pencils? Let me know. Grab a coffee and then send me an email or let me know on twitter or facebook – for extra Bownie points write in German 😉
PS: Oh, and that quote “Don’t you love New York in the fall? It makes me want to buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly-sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.”
In German it’s:
“Ist New York im Herbst nicht einfach ein Traum? Ich meine dann immer, ich müsste neue Schulsachen kaufen. Ich würde dir zum Beispiel einen Strauß frisch gespitzter Bleistifte schicken, wenn ich deinen Namen und deine Adresse wüsste.”
