Yesterday, I got back from my first weekend away. I chose to visit London, partially for the Chipotle, partially for the Queen, but mostly because they speak English and I was tired of feeling like a toddler in situations that the average child could handle. Like buying ice cream and wondering why the word “cone” was never on my vocabulary list, because some old man yelling cup or cone at you multiple times in a row is enough to make me reconsider my choice to ever buy anything ever. Teachers really, really need to re-think how they assign vocabulary, prioritize the food.
So needless to say, it was a huge break to be surrounded by English speaking people. Not only could I ask for stamps and know how to send the postcards, I could also ask for fish and chips and then specify which type of fish I wanted. I could even involuntarily eavesdrop on people’s conversation on the tube. It was 100 percent understanding, 100 percent of the time. And then I came home.
(a photo of me at the Globe in London)
It is amazing how much speaking ability you lose in a weekend. My host mother laughs at me when I wake up every morning because my German is a little rusty, I haven’t been practicing all day. I lose some fluency in those 9 hours and it takes about an hour before I can get it back. Coming back from an entire weekend took even more time.
My host mother wanted to know when I would be home from the airport and all I wanted to say was “just landed, be home soon”. 5 words. I looked up every variation of “just” that my phone dictionary had, before I found the right one, which turned out to be the wrong one. My host mother speaks perfect English, so I could have responded in English. My host mother is very entertained by my countless errors, so I could have picked the wrong one and made her smile. But I wanted to speak proper German, so it took me 5 minutes to improperly write 5 words.
It was frustrating. Language immersion is supposed to be the best way to learn a language, which is why the Furman German Department requires a home-stay instead of a university apartment. And it truly is a valid point. When I get home from school, I have a whole extra class where I learn vocabulary that real Germans actually use in their everyday life. But language immersion is more difficult than I thought it would be. It is frustrating hearing the “did you understand that?” countless times every night, and having to answer “no” the majority of the time. It is frustrating when my host mother switches to English when she gets excited about something, because she knows that if she spoke that quickly in German I would not be able to understand it. It is frustrating when I get on the U-Bahn and the 4 year old sitting next to me is using vocabulary I have not learned.
Eventually I will learn German, and that eventually will come much sooner since I have the home stay. Every once in awhile I say something and my host mother tells me that my German is improving, by that I mean I remember the days, times, and exact conversation of the 3 times that she has said that in the month I have been here. But it gives me hope. I am glad that I get to ride the U-Bahn, and every once in awhile say “Keine Ahnung” (no idea) to the Germans who ask me for directions to places I never heard of, because that means I at least look like I speak German well. I am glad when the lady at the bakery gives me the price in German instead of detecting my awful accents and saying it in English. I am glad that the other Furman students will share ridiculous German commercials with me via YouTube, so we can all learn the same obscure slang, and I am glad that I have my host mom and her friends, who love to gossip with me. Language immersion is mostly frustrating, but I guess, it’s maybe, sometimes, possibly, extremely rewarding.
(a photo of me very proudly reading Brecht – in German! – while sitting next to a statue of Brecht)