My Life in Deutschland: December 2011

As I previously explained, I went on vacation for a month, and subsequently had no German lessons until November. Actually, "lesson" is a more appropriate word, because after one session my German tutor promptly quit. In the words of Tom and Lorenzo,* I was a very bitter kitten after this occurance. However sitting at the dinner table each night and aquiring a headache from the new vocabulary being tossed about is rather taxing, so I became my own German tutor to save my brain cells from their state of bewilderment. Studying the same subject every day for months could certainly become monotonous, so my learning techniques are growing progressively more creative...

In September everything in Germany was as shiny and new as expected. My host sister, Lusia, was eager to teach me her language, and each time I said something understandable in German I felt pretty accomplished.

In October the normal exchange student panic began. It became apparent how many grammatical concepts were yet to be learned, and just how much vocabulary one language contains. Congratulations to all those literate people in the world. I have absolutely no idea how one brain can keep so much information in mind. Anyways, carrying on... In October I bought myself some vocabulary notebooks, German magazines, and a variety of caffinated beverages, then started translating. It's safe to say that I translated the entire island of Amrum, from bus signs to graffiti on bathroom doors.

Oh wait, what is that banana doing on my table of German learning materials? Brian food? Certainly not. It's the great and powerful "Fragen Banane." Let us become aquainted with him.

When I wake up from a nightmare of failing the German SAT Sunject test, and find myself rummaging in the dark with questions and no place to jot them down, the Banane, or one of his various other related forms (namely napkins, body parts, books, and the like), is deployed.

In November my language related dismay continued to swell, as it remained impossible to find a tutor in the village. Now it is December, and although I still have not begun actual German lessons, I’m relatively sure that I can speak itelligbly, and understand the majority of conversation. The anxiety associated with language immersion seems to be slowly subsiding, so for those of you future exchange students, here are my tips for surviving the first few months:

1. Ask everything you need to ask. I felt like a nag, but it’s much more irritating to hear someone say, for example, “I want to can do that,” than, “How should I translate können?”

2. Listen to music and watch TV in your new language. These are probably the least painful ways to commit new words to memory. In particular, watch videos that you have already seen in your native language. I will never forget Uncle Vernon screaming, “BIST DU ENDLICH ZUFRIEDEN?!” That’s how I learned to say, “Are you finally satisfied?!”

3. Read all the little things like recipes, and horoscopes, and do crosswords. It’s much easier to understand short phrases than to try to understand paragraphs of text in books.

4. Sleep. All the time. Learning is exhausting and you can take in more information when you aren’t struggling to stay conscious.

I’m sure new methods of language learning are soon to be discovered, so until then I’ll leave you with this:

What is this? It's my villagers celebrating Fasching of course! That man in the feudal knight costume is the janitor, who brings pitchers of beer to the performers between the acts. Only Germans... When this website and my laptop decide to cooperate, I'll be sure to add some videos from the event.

*Only the most fabulous fashion bloggers whose presence have graced this earth of course. Go forth and enlighten yourself: http://www.tomandlorenzo.com/

Note: Thanks to Madleine Weisborn for the pictures (6,7,9,10,11,12) from my last blog post!