Luxembourg Wurst

Knock A Shining Dog

What to do if someone talks to you in Luxembourgish after they learn you got the nationality

You passed the Sproochentest, just barely, and now you’ve got the nationality. Cool! From here on, you’re on easy street and can forget all you learned, right? Wrong. What if someone speaks to you, now a bona fide Luxembourger, in Luxembourgish?  Take your time There’s no need to panic. Take a deep breath, try to […]

Little a-hole refuses to acknowledge expat parents’ attempts at Luxembourgish

A 10-year-old who attends public school and was previously dutiful and considerate has turned into a little a-hole, refusing to acknowledge his foreign-born parents’ attempts at Luxembourgish. The little a-hole’s mother Tatiana says she doesn’t know what happened to him, noting that he used to happily assist his parents, whether it was translating a menu […]

Code red: non-native French speaker pronounces ‘u’ as ‘ou’ 

What started as a functional yet tense conversation between a customer and a supermarket employee on Friday ended in disaster after the customer pronounced the French “u” like “ou.” Karen Aradóttir, who regularly shops at the Dudelange supermarket, was looking for items for her son’s birthday party including candles, chocolate sprinkles, and lastly, a children’s […]

This expat was lightly shamed by a Luxembourger for not being able to speak Luxembourgish, so in his mind he shamed her for making an English grammar mistake 

An exchange in English with a Luxembourgish plum jam vendor ended with an expat delving into a pedagogic interior monologue about present tenses in English. The imaginary lesson was delivered after the expat accepted a sample from the vendor at a shopping center. After a brief exchange in English, the vendor said, “You have lived […]