From the office

I was on a work call today, and we were talking about how a particular item was 'grandfathered' into the project.  Afterwards, my colleague from Germany pinged me:

A:  I understood the topics and how we must keep the old things, but I do not understand the use of this word?

H:  Grandfathered?  It's an English term, for if something is currently against the rules, but previously it was allowed under the rules at the time.  Therefore we allow it now, it is 'grandfathered' in.

A:  Hmm......ok.

H:  So you don't 'Grossvater' or 'Opa' anything?

A:  No.

H:  So what if something is an exception to the rule?  It is not correct according to the rules, but because of certain reasons, we allow it.  How do you call this in German?

A:  (silence)

H:  (imagining a German staring at the screen with a befuddled look.)  A, you don't have this in German do you?  An exception to the rules that is allowed? 

A:  No H, I don't think we have a word for that...

Yet another example of where the language reflects the culture.

On speaking multiple languages

Some interesting articles just out from the BBC, for the language wonks amongst us:

1. How do you become fluent in 11 languages? - A 20 year old who does quite a good job in the video; I appreciate his optimism about meeting new people.

2. The cult of the hyperpolyglot - About a fellow who speaks 18 languages.

'So what enables hyperpolyglots to seemingly pick up a new language at the push of a button?

Erard says it is hard to explain, but whatever an individual's biographical reasons are, he believes there is something that distinguishes hyperpolyglots neurologically.

"They have a neurological hardware that responds to the world, that's fed by the world, that is suited to a pattern that is recognition-heavy, sound-heavy and memory-heavy - that is very structured, and also very sociable.'

The article also includes this line, but I'm not sure I believe it: 'Easiest language for native English speakers to learn is said to be Dutch.'

Time for some language study

If you've read me the past few years, you know that language courses (and education in general) are my weakness areas. Even in Germany, where I didn't like the sound of the language, I still fell into the trap.

The past few years, I've been distracted with other things: the UK driver's test, law coursework, and my work permit paperwork. Finally, some free time, it's time for language study again!

I have an Excel with various options and my requirements to rate them against.
Here's my short list of languages:

german
dutch
spanish
portuguese
polish
lithuanian
french
british sign language
italian

You may notice, I'm taking it easy and aiming for the continent languages. I love my Asia colleagues to death but I'm awful at tonal languages like Chinese.

And my criteria for judging:

ability to find a native teacher in the UK
ability for native practice in the uk
future location for living
ability to move towards fluency
worth of learning, when locals can speak english instead
current knowledge level
enjoyment of the language

For background, my levels are the following:

-I've tested out at German B1

-I have an undergraduate degree in Spanish. My fluency 10+ years on? I can lead business meetings and fully get around as a tourist amidst local dialects. I'm not going to improve that one until I live there.

-Polish: A1

Thoughts? Anything I'm missing?

Back from Spain

from overnight lows of 7 in Malaga to -2 in Essex. brr. i did get a few days of sunshine however, to get me through this last ditch Essex cold snap.

my plants survived me being away. in addition to my usual ones, i currently have seedlings started for basil, tomatoes, eggplant, hot peppers, and cat nip.

i had a week of speaking spanish, which is always good for the soul. the amusing part was that occasionally some germans would be nearby, and if it would be for an extended period, such as the evening next to them at dinner, then the sounds of german would suddenly infitrate my brain, and an entire sentence would pop out in german, something like this:

Si, yo vivo en inglaterra pero yo soy americana. bla bla in spanish--where did you learn spanish? Estudie la literatura en la universidad; parece que ich habe nicht vergessen. Pero hace muchos anos que no hablaba mucho la lengua, bla bla.

I find as a foreigner, you become quite good at reading people, to make sure that they are understanding you. I'd get a quizzical look, then I'd ponder back and realise what I just slapped together and instantly re-calculate. It would only be when we were near Germans or Dutch, somehow the cadence crept in and attempted to take over part of the conversation. Odd.

Today's quiz - guess the nationality

Whenever I'm in the US or the UK, whenver I hear someone speaking something other than English, I tend to inadvertently tune in. Then I end up purposely tuned in, trying to guess what they're speaking. Here in my corner of Essex I occasionally hear German speakers, actually more often than I hear American English speakers here.

In the late evenings I often stop by Tesco on my walks around. It's a great time to shop as the store is virtually empty and the late night markdowns are superb. I noticed a couple doing 'the circuit', which is a path through the store stopping at the various locations where marked down goods are located. I short circuited the path and worked backwards and we overlapped in the meat/cheese/dairy markdown corner.

I could hear them speaking softly next to me. He was reviewing the instructions on one of the packages with her, explaining the English text to her...in German.

My curiousity got the better of me so I had to ask in German where they were from, and we had a short conversation then. The husband asked, 'Oh are you from Germany?' But of course you'd think that, hearing my stellar accent. That, or he was playing the odds that Germany is the biggest exporter of German speakers. Could be either. ;-)

Today's quiz: Guess where the German speakers were from?

Possible clues:
1. I would estimate them to be around 60 years of age.
2. Everything in their basket was from a marked down section. They were buying ingredients so they obviously had full cooking facilities, so not tourists and on a budget.
3. It was around 20.30 in the evening. My corner of Essex has high flyers who commute daily to London for silly money as well as locals who work in trades in Essex, it's a big mixture who you'll see in Tesco at that hour.
4. Their spoken German wasn't terribly foreign to me.

Any questions? Or take a guess...

noch einmal?

To recap, i took the overnight buses to get to Heathrow, then the 6 AM down to Portugal, and then a connecting flight to Newark. I was lucky on the long flight over, as there was an empty seat next to me, I was able to sleep almost the whole time.

So I arrived into Newark relatively refreshed in the grant scheme of things and managed to hold off until 21.30 to go to sleep.

It was a little surprising then when I woke up dreaming in German.
I have no idea where that one came from.

Anglo American Cultural Exchange - with New Friend Ian

Having only ever lived in England (and one small part at that), my experience of other cultures is – shall we say, much more limited than Heather’s. However the other culture I know the best is probably American. (Admittedly this is mainly through watching The Sopranos and 24. Though my Aunt is American). Despite having a reasonable grasp of ‘Americanisms’ there is still the odd occasion when Heather and myself don’t quite get what the other person is saying. For example;

English / American
Anti-clockwise = Counter clockwise
Trousers = Pants
Pants = Panties
Courgette = Zucchini
Aubergine = Egg Plant
Manual car = Stick shift car
Ground floor = 1st floor
Chips = Fries
Large Coke = Small Coke
Petrol = Gas

(Pronunciation)
TomARto = TomAto
OrigARno = OrEGGANNo

The ground floor / first floor caused some confusion, with Heather telling me she had purchased a 4th floor flat, and me thinking to myself, “but the block only goes up to the 3rd floor”. And I will confess to wandering round the supermarket for at least 10 minutes looking for an Egg Plant, without realising what I was supposed to be getting.

With Heather teaching me about American culture and language, I have also tried to educate her with regard to Essex culture. ‘Essex Man’ and ‘Essex Woman’ came to prominence during the 1980’s when Mrs Thatcher made Essex very rich (and simultaneously made a lot of other places very poor). Characteristics of ‘Essex Man’ and ‘Essex Woman’ include the following;

* A desire for designer goods – though tacky rather than quality.
* Hard working – will do anything for a bit of extra money.
* Lack of subtlety – say it as it is at high volume.
* A habit of starting to produce babies in their teens.
* Politically right wing - with a fierce dislike of immigration.
* Big fans of fast food and cheap drink – and all the associated health related issues this brings. (As Heather found the other week when she wanted to buy a size 10 – only to find a lack of size 10’s but plenty of size 16’s and above).

As with all stereotypes – they are exaggerations but based on truth. Heather will often see an especially bad example of Essex Man and comment that they are “my people”. Well….. Yes, I suppose they are! But Essex isn’t really that bad. I wouldn’t live here otherwise.

So hopefully, as the years roll on, Heather will continue to teach me how to speak ‘American English’, and I will continue to try and convince her that not all Essex people live up to their stereotype. It will be fun!

New Friend Ian

Some German English fun

Yo H, where've you been?
Still here, busy with work and some holiday planning. In addition, I have a German visiting. She came to me through http://www.hospitalityclub.org/, similar to http://www.couchsurfing.org/ if you know that one.

She is a student who has never been to the UK before or to any native English speaking country. She's spending her time and limited student funds trying to see as much of the country as possible and rachet up her English, which until now has been only 'school English'.

Not wanting to deter someone from their dream, I've only been speaking English to her-- although I will give her the English word when she only knows the German term. She wanted to 'mitfahren' to save on expensive British train fares but was having difficulty to find a source in English without knowing the term 'rideshare'.

Of course she makes the classic German mistakes: 'I drive with bus'.

But I love the other mistakes or how someone comes up with a way to say something in English, which while correct is not how a native would usually say it, because it gives you better insight into their language and seeing things in differently in English. This morning as I'm trundling out to work she tells me:

Your cat, she was broken in this night.

(Pause, Heather thinking--looks at cat who is noisily gulping down breakfast--she is physically fine having ran into the kitchen upon hearing me...)

(thinking.....The cat does meow a lot, I did warn the girl that the cat can be locked in the hall so she is not so disruptive....or maybe the cat was walking on her while she was trying to sleep, meaning she's broken or not well trained, although I did warn her that she wakes up at 2 AM full of energy....the girl is not so much a cat person, she's always had dogs....I haven't yet had any coffee so I'm not awake enough to figure this one out....she's broken...kaputt sein...defekt...lots of words ending in brochen, what can she mean?)

On the floor...where you are standing...?

Oh! She threw up, she was sick = she is broken.

Sheesh, I must be losing my touch, I don't think I would have figured that one out even with coffee.

Pleasantly surprised

Granted, I've only been gone from Germany for four months...however, I was expecting to see a marked decrease in my (albeit limited) German. Granted, I have almost daily exposure to it still by phone or email or (shudder) a random German speaker in the UK office, or some connection to Germans speaking English to keep me in the mood, or to a bit of German music. And granted, as the Germans would be quick to point out, I shouldn't be so proud of a B1 level after so long here... :-/

However--have previously gone through the ups and downs of learning Spanish and that painful transition after summer break. Here, I notice absolutely no difference in skill from the moment I left until now. I imagine if I would have had a true break and no connection to Germany I may have lost a bit.

Go figure.

Eavesdropping in Polish

While out at the bar on a lazy Saturday night and having a few beers, we were in a cozy little pub, just perfect for chatting with closely aligned but not overly crowded seating. There were two young ladies, perhaps in their early to mid 20's at the table next to us, having a lively conversation in Polish. I was hearing bits and pieces and trying to guess what part of the country they hailed from as the accent was difficult for me.

Mid-way through the evening, one takes a photo of the other, and then hands over the camera, and the second takes a photo of the first. D and I see this--and I always feel obligated to offer to take a photo of the people together. D asks if he should take their photo and they immediately agree. He has to ask them where they are from (Poland) and what they are doing in the UK (working and studying). The one's English is much better than the other's and she continues the conversation like a pro, and it branches onward when he asks her why she chose to come to England, and not, say, Germany as it is a closer country to her native homeland.

'Oh no, it's not for me, I wanted to speak English'. Although she has Polish friends in multiple English speaking countries (Canada, USA, Australia, etc.) so it wasn't necessarily anything with England in particular except that she found an appropriate school program, and hearing that I was from the US spawned further conversation. Gradually we drifted back to our original conversations...

Later in the evening, the barmaid is coming around collecting glasses. The barmaid says something to her and she laughs and then responds. Then she says a little louder gesturing to us, 'Don't worry, they don't speak Polish'. She then turns to us to explain this inside joke--the barmaid had learned some dirty Polish words and apparently could pronounce them quite well, so they share this little joke that the barmaid speaks Polish. (Teehee).

At which point I had to respond straightfaced: Ja mówię po polsku.
I then watched both Poles instantly freeze and the barmaid looks on confused.
Their conversation for the rest of the evening was racheted down a few notches in volume after that.

Why I love living in Europe

My Dutch colleague and I went out to lunch today, Turkish pizza. I've been going to this place in the tiny town of B for years, the staff is very friendly, and their food is superb. Like many of the businesses I patronize in the tiny town of B, the staff is Turkish German, so I've picked up quite a bit of Turkish German over the years. So they put up with my poor German and doubly poor version of their Turkish phrases all rolled into one.

Maybe because it's Friday, or I'm in a good mood because I'm leaving, or because it was sunny out, but when he opens with 'Bonjour Madame' I answered him in French. For the record, my French is crap. It's so bad, I shouldn't even say 'my French is crap' but rather 'the piddling few words of French I know is crap'. My French is based on a summer semester at community college ten years ago, 6 months of cds while driving in the car 1,5 hrs/day Mon-Fri in 2002, a VHS French course here, and periodically dabbling a bit here and there with my French colleauge or through shopping trips to Belgium. However, I started French after already knowing Spanish, so I picked up a lot, easily, and where I don't know something, I throw in the Spanish version and hope for the best.

And since the Turkish fellow continued to speak it, so did I for the entire duration, all the way out the door to 'Bon Weekend'. Listening to him speak French was much more pleasant than hearing him speak German.

So while looking at the menu I'm speaking English with my Dutch colleague, who is speaking German to the Turkish German guy, who is speaking French to me.

These are the random interactions I will miss moving to the UK.

I'm thinking I may abandon all German studies and if not going after Polish next (due to the large native Polish-speaking population in the UK and my previous studies), then I need to go after a Romance language next. Either properly study French or go after Portuguese or Italian.

and the results are in...

You may recall back in November, I was taking the B1 test from the Goethe Institut. The results finally came today, I got a 2!-->here's what a 2 means.

I usually size down photos, but I thought perhaps someone who is thinking about taking the test in the future might like to see the details Goethe returns: (Click on the photo to make it bigger)


Final thoughts:
-Am pleased to have done this. I'm glad to have a paper which formally states that I do officially have some level of correct knowledge of the language.

-In retrospect, I probably could have passed with a 3 a year ago. (Although I wanted to be 100% sure I'd pass before taking it so as to not have to re-sit for the exam at a 100 EUR cost.) Or I could have seriously studied and tried for a 1. (The 65% section was the 2 pure grammar exercises where I was expecting a 50%--I knew they would be the worst for me.) But if I had it to do over again, I'm 99.9% sure I would have done the same thing all over again. The German language just doesn't mean anything to me, beyond a line on my CV.

-I will be taking this paper to the office along with a bottle of sekt. My work colleagues will be pleased. (Especially after having to put up with me giving them a hard time in the weeks leading up to the exam, for all the Denglish and slang they use in the office.)

Why do you not want to stand next to me?

Probably because you would get singed as I get struck by lightning for lying.

I find myself making a lot of little, white harmless fibs in Germany, mainly because that tends to simplify conversation making. For example:

-There was a restaurant I used to go to every other month or so in my early days here, which I liked very much. But then I moved to Cologne and the restaurant was not so convenient, but I still went occasionally as the service was very good. Then I went again, with my French colleague, and they pleasantly remarked on my appearance and how I had been away a while.

On the spot with my poor German of the time to try to explain that I had moved to Cologne and and I liked their food very much, but they were not so convenient for my commute home, and not wanting to hurt their feelings because I know I wouldn't be able to explain it properly, instead, I went with the easy fib:

Oh, I was home in America for some months for work.

After the server walked away, I looked to my French work colleague (who knows very well I was not in America for some months). I started to say, "My German is not good enough to try to explain", but she cut me off. "Trust me, I do the same thing in English, sometimes it's easier".

-Last night, my very nice downstairs neighbor caught me in the hallway. Frau Liebe Nachbarin, does your car not start in the very cold weather? because they saw that my car stayed covered in snow in its parking spot on the Monday and Tuesday workdays rather than driving off to benevolent company J at 08.30.

Rather than trying to answer, "well, my neck was very sore when I arrived back from the UK on Sunday night from running around too much in the cold weather and uncomfortable beds and leaning on the plane and then train windows to snooze, and well I didn't feel up to shoveling out my car then on Monday in the cold due to said neck stiffness and the crappy looking roads anyway so I took the lazy way out and just took the bus instead, and well Tuesday I worked from home so that I could stay wrapped in a blanket with heat on the neck", instead my simplified German answer was:

I have fear to drive in the snow, so I instead take the bus this week.

Because I didn't want to get into a drawn out conversation about cold moving air on the neck in the UK made it stiff, or that new-fangled concept of working from home. I thought this tiny lie would sort this conversation out in the fastest manner.

Imagine my abject surprise then, upon scurrying out on the way to the bus stop, to see that the pleasant Germans in my building had shoveled out behind my car in the lot. Due to the structure of the parking lot, it was clearly done for me, it's for no one else's benefit. I imagine they were trying to be ever so helpful in giving me confidence in taking out Mr. Polo to brave the winter wonderland.

Boy do I feel guilty.

Lost in translation

I was doing some research online, on ways to ship things to the UK. On one hand, it's nice when a German-based company offers an English version of their website. On the other hand, if you are multi-national corporation, I have higher expectations of your English, than, say, my work colleague who had only school English and never left Germany.

Maybe this has a more approriate meaning in another style of English than American English:
No more humping stuff around - we'll do it all for you!

Here's the German original:
Schluss mit der Schlepperei - Wir machen das für Sie!

Here's where my thoughts went upon reading it.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=to+hump

Usually with a half decent understanding of German and English, one can connect the dots of how they came up with what they did (such as when you see 'hello together' or 'we meet us until 6' or other such literal translations).

This one leaves me stymied, as to where they came up with it. I was so fascinated that I even searched Leo, trying to figure out where this one went wrong, I still have no idea. If you see the connection, please tell me...

It's all Greek to me

Here's a small scan of part of the letter. (click on photo to see it bigger)



Greek colleague sent a quick 2 sentence update by email:

-"it is old Greek" but he understands it.
(not sure if that would equate in my world to something like 'old German script', or rather that it's a dialet.)

-"it's a very strange letter." -->really curious as to what he means by that!

Hopefully he is able/willing to translate it. Dutch colleague had only asked as a favor that he confirm/deny if it's Greek as a first step. Stay tuned...

The liguistics goose chase - a mystery in progress

One of the nice things about working at big, global company J in Europe is the access to a number of people with foreign language skills, who are usually willing to help with something, inside or outside of work.

I have a letter which I discovered during my genealogy research. It has a story attached that it was sent to my great-grandmother from Europe, and that it has something to do with two of my grandfather's younger brothers. Both were killed during WW2 and are buried in military cemetaries in Italy. My grandmother remembers when the letter arrived, and that her mother-in-law had taken it to the Veterans' affairs office who instructed her to ignore it, that it was a plea from someone in Europe who had somehow found out her name, and would try to ply her for money as Europe as poor after the war. (Her memory of the story, 60 yrs later!)

So I have two pages of a letter in some foreign language that I cannot identify. I've toted the thing around here and there, and based on my own knowledge and that of others, it's none of the following:
-English
-Spanish or any other Romance language. I cannot make out a single word here, not one. Usually from my Spanish I can pick up some similar words from the Latin base.
-German
-Polish
-Lithuanian
-Russian
-Dutch

My Dutch colleague suggested that it has a Slavic base, his feeling was that it went toward Russia and eastward, due to some of the characters seeming to be well outside of a Western Europe character set. I had mentioned that I already passed it via my Lithuan cousin who group up during Soviet times and is fluent in Russian, and that he ruled out Russian, Lithuanian, and an 'old Lithuanian' dialect he knows, as not being able to recognize anything.

However, a Russian works in the next room, so it's always worth a shot. He recognized not a single word. His guess: Greek. That's my guess also as that fits the geography of the story as I know it, it's the right area of the world, and I was guessing on some of the characters looking Greek. However, it's not modern Greek as we know it, I already went down this route, trying to pick out words, such as the date and plug them into online translators.

Next stop, my Dutch colleague works with a Greek colleague elsewhere in company J. The letter has been scanned and is en route via email to see if Greek colleague has any thoughts...

and the next day

yesterday wasn't so hot, i'm fighting the flu, today it seemed worse so i took off at lunchtime. as i'm walking out the door, colleague 1 says to me in german, 'hope you feel better'. colleague 2 repeats the same. i answer in english. we tend to have a mishmash of languages floating around all day, so that wasn't out of the ordinary.

C1: wait, H, how do you say that in English?
H: hope you feel better. or feel better soon, i guess.
C1: H! you guess?!? maybe you need to take an English class, not a German class.
H: (thinking: bless his cotton socks as he tries to rescue yesterday with some humor.)
H: no worries C1--as C2 would fix my English as well!
C2: (speechless and confused by the whole conversation.)

I'm sure Colleague 1 spent some minutes after I left to instruct young Colleague 2 (not so long out of university, never lived anywhere but DE), in some of the finer points of dealing with Americans. As well as to explain the joke of Heather needing an English class. And that my final comment was not literal, but a bit of sarcasm. Thankfully I was on the way home.

the more things change...

the more they stay the same. After all the German learning run around, I finally felt moved by the spirit last week to register for the B1 test in November. Upon reviewing in the VHS course schedule I checked my understanding with my work colleagues:

H: Colleague K, read this--does this say I must call this person in order to register to take this test?
K: Yes, Heather. Hmm. They probably want to speak with you, to make sure that you speak enough German to take the test.

(hmm)

So I call the woman...
H: I'd like to register for this test in November.
VHS Frau Doktor: Yes, you need to come in and take a test.
H: I need to take a test in order to be able to take the test?
VHS FD: Yes. You may come tomorrow between 3 and 4, or Wednesday mornings, from 9-10 are my open door office hours.
H: Okey dokie. (eyes rolling)

So I appear during open office hours. She questions me--is this a requirement of my staying in Germany? (no). Is this a requirement for my residency permit, to show proof of German skills (no). Then why do you want to take this test? So that I can go home to America next year, having passed this test in Germany. (Oh, of course). Not exactly true as I have no plans to return home to America, but I was tired of having this conversation.

VHS FD: OK, so then you only need to take this short written section then, it's the last section of the test. Here's a chair, 30 minutes, go ahead.
H: (freaking A). So I plod along, writing a letter which is a response to a letter, focusing my paragraphs on four key points as required in the instructions.

Upon handing it in:
VHS FD: Yes, you will pass the test with this level of German. If you want to get a high pass though, you need to write at least two more paragraphs. Length is a requirement for a high pass. But, you may keep the entire practice test, and fill out this card, and you're registered.

Upon returning to the office, because I had to miss work hours to go on this adventure:
Colleague 1: So H, are you allowed to take the test?
H: Freaking A. Yes. (grumble, grumble) Things are so difficult in your country. (This is to my German colleague, whom I sit across from and I've known for 5+ years, otherwise I tend to park the outright negativity to the country.)
C1: Why?
H: Because I just had to take part of the test, to register for the test.
C1: (Quizzical look.)
C2: (starts flipping through the practice test, and takes a pen to my writing, to correct it.)
H: That's the purpose of the test, to show that I can pass it. So I shouldn't have to take a pre-test to be allowed to take the test, else what is the purpose here.
C1: They want to help you. They don't want you to fail.
H: But colleague C1, it's my own fault if I fail, then I shouldn't be registering for a test I cannot pass.
C1: H, they want to protect you!
H: (thinking) from myself?
C2: H, your writing is really poor....
C1: How do they do this in the US? Anyone can register for any test?
C2: ...Well, but your speaking is better. No, not really, because really you don't speak enough; your speaking is also poor. But your primary problem there is just not using German enough. You should speak it more.
H to C2: It's B1 level, not fluency or entry to university.
H to C1: Yes, anyone can register for any test. It's your own fault if you are under-prepared.
C2: Really H, your written German is not very good. You should not have used 'haben' here. Well you could, but 'werden' sounds better.
H to C2: It's B1, readjust your grading level.
C2: What's B1?
H to C2: The level of the test and the expected writing level. What two German teachers have now said I have that enough of in order to pass.
C2: But it's wrong!!!

And that really is the crux of the matter, bless his little perfectionist heart, as he does mean well. Some days I do wonder...if I was in a German language environment (say in a different German-speaking country) where the native population didn't feel the need to pick apart every single written or spoken sentence, would I be more interested in acquiring the language? Or, had I had proper training before coming to Germany, so that I had some basis to start with upon arrival, would I be a little less sensitive to the constant correction, as there wouldn't be so much to correct.

Neither here nor there really as I'm not a lifer here. But something to consider, those of you reading me outside of Germany and planning to move here. ;-)

More thoughts on learning German

Apparently this has been my theme this week. ;-) A few of you had some interesting comments on this theme. To summarize my general thoughts:

Why now after five years?

In that class the other day, I was reading aloud and the very nice teacher was gauging my spoken skills. 'Halt!' Then she says, 'you said German word, which is ok, that's how they say it in Hamburg, but a better way to say it in our corner of NRW is ...' I love 'teacher speak' and how they don't want to be discouraging.

However, I saw the point, my random pronunciation of that one threw off the overall effect of the entire sentence. I imagine it must be something I picked up from TV. Or that I heard it somewhere else and picked up the softer pronunciation of said word (my favorite and regular Berlitz teacher was from Hamburg), rather than the stronger NRW guttural version. I feel that I have a lot of tiny things of this type, and that a small amount of effort would give good returns. (As opposed to when I first got here and couldn't string together a sentence with any word with appropriate pronunciation, and all effort produced slow results.)

I don't imagine I'll be here another five years to allow for the general passive acquisition that has served me well thus far, so it's move it or lose it time. For some reason, hitting the five year point seems to have been a milestone after the fact. When I speak Spanish, I can go months and pick up immediately where I left off. My German isn't strong enough yet to do that, and if I don't get a stronger foundation in place, if I were to leave Germany tomorrow, I'd lose it completely, in a matter of a few years. I feel that would be an absolute waste of my time/effort here personally that I did already put into learning it, as well as a professional waste, as it is a marketable skill.

Had I known I was going to be here this long, I probably would have sucked it up long ago and got on the bandwagen. This was originally supposed to be a three month stint, then it became just one year, then onto two, and so it goes and here we are on an unlimited German contract. However, not having a German significant other to turn me into a lifer, I do have some sort of shelf life here, or so I suspect. Thus no lofty goals to read Goethe in the original or needing the language to be promoted or anything of that nature. More that from a common sense, practical perspective, the time seems right.

Scrambling

After I finally got off my duff and registered for German, it was a tad disappointing for them to call on Friday, they were cancelling the business class due to lack of registrants. (Sigh)

Back to the drawing board. I was already emotionally committed, and short of time as most VHS courses in this region are starting this week. In addition my Thursday was now blocked with the pronunciation class.

Checking all the local VHS courses, was between a rock and a hard place, as the schedule wasn't fitting (leaving early this year for the US), or the distance, or the days, or the time to go take another placement test, etc.

In the end, I came back full circle and will take the general B1 test prep course being offered by the tiny town of B.

On the negative side:
-It's only the general B1 course, not the business specific one.
-It's 2 hrs, 15 minutes each time. Yes I'm sure there's a break tucked in there, but still.

The positive:
-It's only 8 meetings since each is so long.
-It ends in November, rather than during the December packing rush.
-It's only a 15-20 min walk from my flat to the classroom. :-)