Learning the language

G'day everyone!

Today is Friday and I can't believe I have been here for nearly 2 weeks!!! Why does time fly when you are on holidays, but go soooo slow when you are just wading through the everyday routines at home? I know...I know... a rhetorical question. [nods & grins]

Wonderful to hear from you Heather, Allison & Amber.

Heather - rest assured that you are not the only one who thinks I use up far too many words to say something which could be said in 5 sentences or less. Its been mentioned to me before....numerous times. [laughs loudly] So I'll keep doing an 'executive summary' for those who prefer me to 'cut to the chase'. :-)

Allison - Can't wait to hear about the Sydney conference...what a great guest speaker!

Amber - I've added you to Skype and sent you an invitation. And [confused look]...there's been a 'war thing' with Russia you think?? ROFL I'd do some history research on Google if I were you. [chuckle]

So...this posting is about how I'm going with the German language.

Executive Summary: I'm working hard on it, and I'm progressing slowly, but getting braver. :-)

Practicing German

The above photo shows the street I live in, and one of the first things I had to do was learn how to pronounce it properly in case I got lost and had to take a taxi home. [grin] The problem with me is that when I make up my mind to do something, I don't have the patience to take things one step at a time, and I want it all to happen immediately. My family, and colleagues at work will attest to this fact. :-)

I started to learn German in February and even though I have received feedback to say that I'm making good progress, I really want to be speaking it fluently....NOW! As I'm typing this I have the radio on in the background so that I can immerse myself in the language as much as I can. But I think I'm doing OK and when I look back at what I was working on in February, I can see how far I've come. But while being here is helping to accelerate my learning, its also showing me how far I have to go [frustrated look]. But let me give you a couple of examples:

Yesterday I took myself for another long walk...this time without shopping to carry! I won't go on about the walk except to say it was warm and sunny and really lovely...except for the inevitable hills. Anyway, I must look like a local because people often stop me to ask directions. So yesterday I threw myself in the deep end. A car pulled up alongside me and a young guy leaned over and said "Ibiy zfgdte cvdbghji jkli slahfiii?" Well, to a person who struggles with a language, that's what its like!!!!

I won't write the following in German because only my German friends will understand it, but rest assured that the whole conversation was definitely in German...albeit my side of it was pretty basic. ;-) I first said that I didn't speak German but did he speak English? He got this helpless look on his face and said his English was "sehr schlecht"...or very bad. So I reached into my bag and said that I had a map (ein karte)...which brightened him up considerably as I think he'd been driving around for some time. Then he asked me where we were on the map, and I was able to explain it to him. He found where he needed to go and handed back the map. I asked him if everything was OK now and he said it was and thanked me profusely. And then he said "Ihr Deutsch ist besser als mein Englisch"...or something like that. Which I took to mean that my German was better than his English! [beaming grin]

And this morning I was woken by the doorbell. (and we won't discuss what time this was) [grin] First of all you need to understand that this is a secure apartment, and anyone wanting a resident needs to ring their bell on the front door...which rings inside the individual apartment, where you answer it. Well, I picked up the handset to hear a fast spiel of German unpronounceable words again. It makes one feel a bit helpless, I'll tell you! [nods her head knowingly] So after establishing that he didn't speak English either (nobody here seems to speak much English, except for what they learn at school) and as I knew Norbert was expecting a parcel, I said "Post? Ein karton?" These being the only 2 German words I know to do with the postal service. And the voice said "Ja, ja" so I said "ein moment bitte" (because I didn't know how to say I was coming down), and raced down the stairs to open the door and sign for the parcel. So......I'm managing!!!! [pleased grin]

Last night, Norbert and I had a couple of games of Yahtzee and tried out another couple of brands of Schnapps. Oh, you would love it here Allison.....the beer and alcohol is cheaper than the juice and softdrinks! Easy to justify and I'm getting reeeeally used to this tradition of Schnapps after tea. [cheeky grin}

Anyway, back to the point...I'm waffling again. [grin] Norbert said that to help me practice, while in the apartment, we would only speak German. So we spoke German to each other for the rest of the night. Now....this is just wonderful of him to help me learn the language faster, but today I got to thinking. [frowns a little] Normally I chat a lot, but last night I would have said only 35-50 words in total, all night. Do you think its possible that he might have an ulterior motive????? ROFL

Must go - we are going out for tea tonight and then around to somebody's place for drinks afterwards.

Seeya!!!