Learning German

On Monday, Andrew and I wrapped up our first German course, which lasted three or four weeks. We jump right into German II next Monday. While it came at an especially busy time for both of us, I think we really enjoyed finally getting this opportunity to learn to speak the native language spoken by most people around us.

The class was marked by a few epiphanies. For one thing, we learned that for the past year we have been mistakenly too informal with people we meet in Switzerland by greeting strangers on the sidewalk or in a shop with "Hallo," or saying goodbye with "Tchüss!" Those informal greetings and farewells are acceptable only in Germany.

Oops!

We have struggled with the ü, ä and ö sounds, for which we have no equivalent sounds in English (or Spanish). And it's easy to get mixed up in pronunciation when the "W" does sounds like "V" and "V" sounds like "F".

One thing that helps is that English has its roots, linguistically, in old Germanic dialects. So there are enough similarities in how the letters are used that it's not as difficult to adapt to the new words as I thought it would be.

We have experienced great feelings of satisfaction in suddenly being able to converse briefly with cashiers, shop owners, restaurant servers, and people on the street, as well as to practice with old and new friends who are German-speaking. We can discuss the weather, introduce ourselves, speak about how we feel or what mood we are in, offer sympathy to someone who is ill, ask someone when their birthday is, count to 20 and say the letters of the alphabet German-style.

Can't wait for German II!

Shönes Tag! (Have a beautiful day!)