Herby Agnew
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Germish - why the battle between two languages lives on in my head

11/7/2012

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Most people find it hard to believe that I speak another language other than English. So the fact that I think and dream in any other language (aside from what people assume to be my native tongue) might seem a bit far-fetched as well. Nevertheless, my daily life consists of constant internal translations to which I've grown accustomed since the tender age of six (6). It's somewhat like having a UN Translator in my ear on a consistent basis.

Although my first words were uttered in English, I learned to read and write in German long before learning my "ABCs" in my parents’ language. Despite my American heritage, I was blessed to have grown up in Germany, where I not only attended school, but also adapted to the German culture.  Upon moving abroad, my mother began working as a local national in the bustling travel industry in Deutschland.  This afforded her complete German benefits, including access to the education system for her children. Because every DoD (Department of Defense) daycare was at max capacity when we arrived , my parents thought to enroll me in German daycare as a temporary solution for childcare.  They never intended for me to stay in German school – it just sort of happened. And before mom and dad knew it, a letter from the school district, translated into English by the kindergarten director, came home with me in my Mickey Mouse back pack.  The letter informed them that Herby was ready for the first grade. I was only five at the time, but I remember the conversation with my parents pretty well:

     Mom: Herby, they say that you’re ready to go to school now.
     Herby: But I already go to schule, mommy!
     Dad: No, this will be first grade. You’ll be going to big kid school like your sister.
     Herby: Oh, will Danny be there, too?
     Mom: Well, that’s what we need to know. Do you want to go to school with all German 
     children or do you want to go to school with American children?
     Herby: I want to go to school with Danny and Tim and Sven and Alex and Daniel and    
     Anna and Kirstin

By the end of the rather brief discussion, the matter was settled – I was going to attend school with my friends. My parents couldn't bear the thought of pulling me away from my friends, my only sense of normalcy, despite how rather abnormal it may have seemed for a Black American to attend German school. I was always allowed to flow between English and German when at home, using my sister as the occasional translator. At school, everything was German, and before long, my passive engagement with the English language turned into fragments of conversational phrases used to interact with American family and friends. 

I would not learn to read English until the 5th grade, when I began learning British English as my first foreign language.  By then, German phonics had taken the dominant position as “default” setting. But, as it is pretty common with Military families, by the end of my 5th grade year, it was time to move back to the states. With less than a full year of English studies, my family relocated to North Carolina, where I would attend an English speaking school for the first time. The good news: I was at least 2-3 years ahead of my new American classmates in Math and Science. The bad news: I couldn't spell or read English without reverting to my default setting – German.

Although many people tend to think of German as a harsh sounding language, it happens to be rather straightforward and matter-of-fact when spelled and/or read aloud. For example, if you ask a German to spell something, they usually just say the word slower. The way it sounds is the way it is spelled (with only a hand full of exceptions). When asked to spell ‘chair’, I would incorrectly write the word as ‘cher’ without giving it even a second thought. Needless to say, my American teachers were rather perplexed with my spelling deficiency.  By the end of the school year, I think most teachers had written me off as either dyslexic or completely ignorant.

It wasn't until the 7th grade that a teacher figured out the "Herby Conundrum". Mrs. Trevor, a petite but feisty Math and Language Arts teacher, had the distinct pleasure of having me in her class three times a day: Homeroom, Math, and Language Arts. She first noticed that I did things a bit differently when I was asked to solve a multiplication problem on the board. At first, Mrs. Trevor thought I was going about solving the problem incorrectly. However, after I managed to prove that multiplying straight across was not only effective but also space saving, she seemed to lighten up. After class she wanted to know who in the US taught me to do Math that way. I politely told her, “I didn't learn Math here – I learned it in Germany.” That’s when things began to change!

Unbeknownst to me, Mrs. Trevor met with her fellow team teachers and compared my spelling test to a German text and to the work of a German foreign exchange student (whom they asked to write down a list of English words using German phonics). “I know you've been having trouble with your spelling, Herby, but now I know why,” explained Mrs. Trevor. “You’re not wrong, you’re just not thinking in English…” The rest of the year, the kind teachers at Albrightton Jr. High School worked to help me understand English phonics. By the following semester, I was in Honors English and won a writing competition for a short story.

I’ll be forever grateful to those great educators for helping me cope with being bilingual. Despite their efforts, however, I still think in German. Now, I merely change gears when writing. The switching back and forth is stressful at times, but I've grown used to the constant change. I sometimes describe it as replay of WWW II going on in my head 24/7.  And those times when neither side wins, the result is Germish – not German, not English but a unique blending of the two.

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A Good Name – A Worthy Brand

3/28/2012

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Sitting in Dr. Matthew Joseph’s marketing strategy class at Georgia College & State University, I began to see the various points in the universe connect on the convergence of all the things I knew about marketing. Our efforts, regardless of how benign, go toward establishing, distracting from or adhering to a brand. “Marketing doesn’t start with some commercial or ad campaign – and it certainly does NOT end with a consumer’s eventual purchase,” said Dr. Joseph. “One misunderstood concept regarding your product can ensure you don’t get a single customer. One dissatisfied customer can do more damage to a brand than thousands of dollars worth of advertising can repair…” 

I hate to admit it, but I would normally doze of around this part of the class.  It was a 90-minute class and thirty minutes in was the perfect time for a ten-minute nap to get me to the end of the lecture. But that day, the marketing professor had my undivided attention and by some divine forces or the universe, he was actually making me use my brain to connect the dots and call on knowledge that I already knew to reinforce the concept of marketing towards a brand. “What I’m saying is that if you don’t build your product/service around a solid set of values that define what it is you’re trying to sell, you can forget about going to market!” 

I had heard this somewhere before.  Those exact words weren’t used, but the notion was similar. Then it hit me – I had first learned of the concept in Sunday school years before even attending college. 

          Proverbs 22:1 “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and 
          loving favor rather than silver and gold.” (KJV)

          Proverbs 22:1 "A good name is more desirable than great riches; to 
          be esteemed is better than silver or gold." (NIV)

Marketing without substance (i.e. trying to sell something that people are confused about what it is or perceived to be of no value) is like screaming at the wind. I would later come to learn that marketing was an extension of branding – the act of establishing, maintaining and enhancing the brand.  The brand itself was the meat on the plate – the main dish. Simply defined, a brand is a particular identity or image regarded as an asset. When people hear names like Coach, Aston Martin, and Hermes, high value and prestige are associated with the brand. What Dr. Joseph and King Solomon (the author of the book of Proverbs) were trying to convey is the importance of the name/brand standing for something.

Before huge corporations and organizations hired marketing and branding specialists to lord over their image, logos and PR events, business was conducted between individuals by individuals through a rather simple exchange.  If you wanted the best produce, you would ask “Who collects good fruits and vegetables?” Word of mouth (which in many cases has now has been replaced by TV commercials, web ads, radio spots, billboards, text ads, etc.) would lead you to the best possible produce based on the positive experience of someone else. Truth in the experience was proven time after time and conveyed to others in search of a particular product or service.  With this truth, trust was established between individuals. The guy who had fancy marketing tactics might have been able to make an immediate sale, but the guy who was able to back up his reputation with quality was blessed with an established name (i.e. brand) and longevity with a loyal cliental. 

What I had learned in Sunday school so many years ago and what Dr. Joseph taught me in marketing strategy class was a concept in branding brought to full circle. But what relevance does branding have to each of us as an individual when the word “personal” is placed in front of the phenomenon? Like organizations, people also have to rely on the basic concepts of brand marketing. Your personal brand tells the world who you are.  Given that we now live in the age of social media and social networking, you don’t have to invest millions of dollars to take out an ad in the trendiest periodical to get the word out about who you are as a brand.  The world can find out about you and what you stand for just by looking at your Facebook or LinkedIn profile, or by following your tweets. 

I have come to realize that we are all “selling” something at any given moment. Depending on what you’ve built as a personal brand will certainly determine who will be buying. So commit today to making a good name for yourself and building a worthy personal brand – you never know who needs to “buy” something from you.

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