First week down

While it hasn't been an entire week, I've finished my first week of class in Berlin. I've already learned a lot, and hands down, my German is already so much better after the first week. I don't speak German with my classmates all of the time outside of class, but I'm constantly thinking in German. Quite simply, you can't get away from it. I know that's kind of an obvious statement, but it really makes a difference. At school, I would have three hours of German class a week. While I learned a lot and wouldn't be here without that German, it was really easy to turn it off and continue in English. Some of the finer point fell by the wayside. Here, it is inescapable. I can't turn off the German if I want to get from place to place, or buy some groceries, or whatever. Sure I guess that I could ask the workers at the bakery or the grocery or the bookstore if they speak English, but I think I'd be selling myself short. I didn't expect anything to be easy, and I don't want to make it so. It comes with the territory.

There are a few things I still need to get over. I'm still a little hesitant to speak German to Germans. I think it will get easier and easier to do, but it still is a bit of an issue. Sometimes when I don't know what something is or how to do something, I won't bother trying to ask because I just want to use German. This morning, for example, there was something at the bakery that I really wanted to eat. It looked like some variation of a bear claw danish, but I didn't know what it was. I didn't ask, and I went with the apple strudel instead. I know it is a small thing, but I really would have liked that danish. Restaurants in general spur a bit of anxiety. Today after class, some of my classmates and I went to a restaurant, and it was a very complicated ordeal. It involved some strange plastic card that was like a credit card/tab card that you passed to each station, and they swiped it each time you ordered. So first, I had to get the card from the hostess. Then I had to hand it to the man from whom I ordered my pasta. Then I had to hand it to the woman from whom I ordered my beer. Then I had to hand it back to the hostess after I was finished with my meal to pay. I have this image that restaurants in Germany are situated in a very complicated way that I won't understand when explained to me in German. I think with time, this will be easier and easier. I've only been here for a week, after all.

Eavesdropping has become my new favorite thing to do. I have to admit that I have brought my iPod onto the Ubahn a couple of times and listened, but for the most part, I try to listen to other people's conversations. I have found that I've been able to pick out more and more words. I have started looking for the most conversant people on the Ubahn and started sitting near them so that I can hear what they're saying. I sat next to a kid today who was telling one of his schoolmates about how being an only child was the best thing to be. Television is a bit easier to understand also. I can't say that I completely understand everything that I hear, but I have been picking up more and more words. Yesterday, I watched a program about Free Masons. I can't say that now I know anymore about the Free Masons than I did before, but I certainly could identify more words than before--even a word that I learned that day in class.

Ultimately, I am really happy with how things have progressed after the first week of classes. It can only get better. I know I've still got a long way to go, but I'm getting there. I'm still at a point where when I read German, it must be processed into English before I can understand what it actually means. I imagine there will come a time where I will just recognize German as German, read it, and understand it, and I don't expect to have that kind of expert competency when I finish my 8 weeks. I can only hope to be closer to that.

I hope you all are enjoying everything so far. Have a lovely weekend, and I'll be back on Monday.

Deutsches Wort des Tages:

die Besserung -- improvement