Page 53 - 1916 February - To Dragma

132 TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

where she d i d her studying, but rather where she took her examina-
tions and how she passed them.

Although we had had much more schooling than our Luzern girl
friends, we felt their superiority strongly in many things. They
knew nothing of science, but greatly excelled us along literary lines,
and in their appreciation of art. They not only knew their own
literature as well as the German, but were w e l l acquainted w i t h
those of France, England, and perhaps of Italy, Spain, or Portugal.
They had an earnest desire to learn and a pride i n acquired skill.

I remember the first afternoon when the girls in the families of
Frau Mayer Brun's friends were invited f o r tea and to meet the
five American girls. Frau Mayer Brun suggested that we improve
the time by reading aloud some German and English poetry. I
never shall forget how beautifully those girls read their German, and
how inferior and childish our English seemed.

Each o f them could speak at least four languages. I n Luzern
a person is not counted w e l l educated unless he can speak three or
four. There are three distinctive languages spoken in Switzerland—
French, Italian, and Swiss-German, and there are twenty-two dia-
lects of these. The Luzern man must know French and Italian in
order to communicate with the people of his own country. From
Luzern one rides scarcely two hours on the train before the baggage
men and porters are shouting French instead of Swiss-German.
T h e n i t is necessary f o r h i m to know English i f he wishes to cater
to the thousands of American tourists that find their way to Switzer-
land every year. One Luzern g i r l said, " W e must be able to speak
English, or we couldn't go to the dances given in the summer time
while the Americans are here."

We never d i d get quite accustomed to the variety of languages
floating around i n the air. I n our small dancing class our "Tanz-
meister" spoke I t a l i a n to the orchestra, French to some members of
the class, Swiss-German to others, and German to us. T h e n there
were some in the class who always spoke English w i t h us.

Such a situation is not at a l l uncommon. I n one f a m i l y with
which we were .acquainted half the children spoke only French and
the other half only English. Each could, however, understand the
language of the other. Thus the noise in the nursery was both
French and English. A French governess f o r the older children
and an E n g l i s h nursemaid f o r the younger t w o , were the cause of
this division. The children have not yet learned Swiss-German,
their native tongue, or German, the public and official language in
Luzern.