Lost in Translation 2

One of my adopted home towns in Europe is Hannover, Germany. I've taught there more than any other place during my summer visits. They have a football (soccer to Americans) club named the Hannover Sechsundneunzig. This simply translates to Hannover 96 in English. Click here for a link to their Facebook page. 

However, Germans relate numbers differently than do Americans. So that ninety-six is written as "six and ninety." Since Hannover is my adopted German home, the team became my adopted team. I'd always arrive in time to see one or two games and really enjoyed it. I've got a scarf, T shirts, and other stuff with the symbol of the team on it.

In 2013, I was at a street festival (mostly drunk) in Hannover when this guy and a few friends stop me and ask where I had gotten the team gear from. It was (and still is) obvious to everyone around that I'm an American. I answer in my best drunken German that I'd been coming and working in the town for years and really liked the team. However, in my drunken haze, I mix up the letters of the team so instead of saying that loved "ninety-six" and come every year to see it, I say that I love "sixty-nine" and can't wait to get back to Germany to watch. These guys crack up but I don't get it. My German isn't that good and I've been drinking. Of course that gets me free beers and the group grows as I tell more and more people how much I love to come to Germany for "sixty-nine."

By the end of the festival, me and about 10 guys are all walking around drinking and singing chants about our favorite team "Hannover 69."

It's not until the next day that I realize what had happened.