A few weeks ago, my go-to writing site presented a challenging contest: Write a story of 1,000 words or less, using a list of words, and translate those words into a foreign language. I took the dog for a walk and imagined a fictional conversation with my mother, who grew up in Europe. This was a fun and challenging exercise, because I had to translate half of the conversation and have it all make sense.

My mom never spoke German at home. She spoke a mixture of German and English when she spent time with her sister, but never to her kids. I had to run the German half through Google translate to get it right. And I asked my German friend to look it over to make sure it was correct. (Thanks, Connie!) I’ve highlighted the required words in both English and German. Just know that language doesn’t always translate perfectly using Google translate.

Here is an imaginary conversation with my stubborn German mother:

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“Mom, it’s time to get ready for our dinner date.”

“Ich habe dir bereits gesagt,” she replied in her native German, “dass ich nicht mit dir zum Abendessen ausgehen werde.”

“I heard what you said. But, you need to get out of the house. Besides, Terry will be here in an hour to pick us up.”

“Ich würde heute Abend lieber zu Hause bleiben,” she pouted.

“You want to stay in every evening, Mom. It’s time to get out and about.”

“Schau mal,” she pointed out the window, “Regen.”

“You won’t melt in the rain, Mom.”

“Wohin gehen wir?”

“To your favorite place. Wear your ruby necklace.”

“Meine Rubin Kette? Warum?”

“We have a surprise for you, that’s why.”

Two hours later, they sat at a private table set for four.

“Wer ist der Vierte?”

“You’ll see.”

“Hallo, Schwester,” Onkel Jürgen said from behind.

“Jürgen!”

“Ja, ich bin zu deinem Geburtstag hierher geflogen.”

“Ach, du…”

“Ich wollte, dass es eine Überraschung ist. Ich habe das Gefühl dass Du mich nicht erwartet hast.”

“She’s been withdrawing for months, Onkel Jürgen. She’s been depressed since Tante Wilma passed.”

“I do what I can,” said Onkel Jürgen in his broken English. “We go tomorrow to visit the forest. Her emotion will maybe change if she walks among trees.”

“Ich gehe morgen mit dir in den Wald, Helga.” said Onkle Günter. “Wir wandern wie früher als Kinder.”

It was the first time in months Mom smiled.