Inspired by Germany's recent discussion about simplifying (or re-inventing)) German orthography I will report about googling for results on my pseudonym.
Naturelich is an artifical word. It is similar to the German word natürlich - which can be translated as:
of course
certainly
of course (but not: off course as the blog banner suggests ;) )
naive
native
naturally
needless to say
that is
elemental
inartificial
As you can see, natürlich is a very diverse word in the German language. Just as irritatingly diverse as this blog. If a native speaker of the English language has to pronounce natürlich, I have found it best to spell it like this: naturelich [Note: The ch at the end will still be difficult, though]. In the process of making the decision to use this word as my pseudonym, I was googling for the word and found some hits, where people had made spelling mistakes (trying to avoid the ü-character aka u-Umlaut and replacing it be ue). And since the one year anniversary of this blog gets closer and closer I started googeling again for the word.
And, guys, you won't believe this! I am not only a spelling mistake. I exist in reality, in Georgia, in the United States of America! What I found is published by the FLAG organisation (Foreign Language Association of Georgia) in their 2001 conference program:
[quote] Character Education in the FLES Classroom? Aber naturelich! – Margita Haberlen, Austin Elementary School, Dunwoody, GA. The presenters will show that it is not only possible to reinforce the state mandated character education program in the foreign language classroom, but that it is also a wonderful means to enrich and enliven it. The handouts, based on work with elementary students, can be easily adapted for older German students. German – all levels. [unquote]
So, apparently Margita was using the term naturelich in her classroom long before this blog. And it prooves: the term is really existing: they use it in Georgia to teach their students the German language. It is not a spelling mistake. I am not a spelling mistake. Naturelich is something which can be put to good use when educating small kids. What an exciting coming-out. Don't you think =8)
I really feel better and relieved now.
