This language thing

So, a while ago, my apartment-mate had a supper and asked me to help pull out the table. Now, the thing's sticking out, and I want to suggest to her that we push it back together. I don't know quite what the English idiom is for that, and lots of funny German occurs to me, meaning roughly "squish it back to how it was," "reestablish its prior dimensions," "make it not stick out so much." All of those funny utterances, suitably translated, would solve the problem -- and, to a considerable extent, language just is about solving problems. I think if it were taught that way, it would save a lot of misery and get more people talking: generally, with even a rudimentary vocabulary and uncertain grammar, you can get must things done that you want to do if you just wing it and if you are willing to look slightly stupid.

There is, of course, more to language than that. A favourite book from a couple of years ago was The Elegance of the Hedgehog, a picture of language as an elaborate dance, an achievement of culture, a way that the people who care about doing things right recognise each other. That is, of course, also part of the story. Foreigners caught in another language world are caught between the two models: they have to solve problems or they never find the bathroom, get what they want to eat, and they also have to gradually figure out what the beauty of the thing is and move along with it. That's tricky, especially in Austria, because there are so many foreigners, and so much odd language around. The problem solving aspect threatens to dominate. Also, English forms keep popping up as normative, as the way that new words and expressions are being formed.