My post title is clearly in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. whose birthday America observed on Monday this week. In Germany, of course, it was just another day, although a nice day to be in touch with friends and family back home as weekends are often so busy for everyone.
But last night, I really did have a dream...and part of it was in German! Isn't that, like, a sign that I'm starting to get it?!?
In my dream, we were visiting back home and I was treating my mom, sisters, Autumn, and myself to a girls spa day at this cute little chalet. When the girl brought me the bill I was glancing it over to be certain the charges were correct but she asked, "Are you checking for my Trinkgeld?" (gratuity, tip) and I gasped, "Are you from Germany?!" and she smoothed out her apron like you'd wear over a Dirndl and said, "Ja." So all excited I was like, "Ich wohne in Berlin!" (I live in Berlin) and she was all, "Ich komme aus Bayern-München!" (I come from Bavaria--Munich --which is probably not really how you'd say it. It's how they call the soccer team, though.) Anyway, we had a very basic conversation auf Deutsch before my alarm went off. Hey, I'm not that far in my language lessons although I can definitely tell I'm improving as is my confidence.
I have noticed I am able to communicate with store clerks and rather than going in with my previous "Do you speak English?" attitude I am more willing and able to just speak those simple sentences in German AND they don't automatically switch to English once they hear me...anymore.
I went in to the BVG (the public transport company) to try to sort something out last week and walking in I told the woman, "I can only speak a little German" (but in German, of course: "Ich kann nur ein bisschen Deutsch sprechen.") and she just sort of was like, "Das ist okay" rather than like, "I speak some English, what can I do you for, Pardner?" and we were able to have our small conversation about how Autumn is now 6 and I need to get her monthly transport ticket but oh wait, you'll need to reapply for Dalton and your daughter because she is now the youngest and she needs to hold the main Schüler ticket and the others will be the siblings. And also you need two new pictures for Dalton and your daughter. "So I can't do this today?" (in German) "Leider nicht." (unfortunately not) which I did not know this expression at all until my class. Yay! Jason was like, "Well that sucks that you couldn't take care of it" and I was like, "I'm focusing on the positive: I did it all in German!!!" and it's not like I walked away all confused about why I could not do it and needing to return with a German-speaker. I understood 100%!
I booked Easton's birthday party online as well and in the email I wrote in my bad German and apologized for my crap German and said I spoke English hoping she did too. I wrote in German but then also again (more clearly) in English but every time she responded it was in German. Even when we went to the venue she spoke German--I didn't even try in English!
I was able to eavesdrop on two moms the other morning as well. Easton's class recently had some major drama with what they call "cyber mobbing" which is not quite bullying but had to do with the kids and their phones. Easton is the only (poor, deprived) child in his class that does not have a phone but I knew enough about what was going on. The other morning two of the moms were discussing the drama some more and I could hear the one mom imitiating one little girl in German, "She doesn't like me! She doesn't like me!" and then she named off a few of the kids in this problematic group and was like, "Was ist der Name des anderen?" (What's the name of the other one) and I wanted to supply the girl's name for her but I was just eavesdropping, remember? Anyway...it is very exciting for me. Ha ha ha!
Another development, is being better able to help my kids. I have mentioned before that the math classes at our international school are taught in German. So, yesterday Easton had his second big test of the year and it was geometry and I was trying to help him study, but I would say the shapes in English which he mostly knew, but really he had to know them all in German. It was 3D shapes and their nets and all that which he's always been fairly good at. So, quizzing him I'd be like, "How many angles does it have?" and he'd be like, "What? What's an angle?" and I'd realize, "Oh yeah, he doesn't think of math terminology in English so much anymore" so then I could be like, "Wie viele Ecken?" and he would know! Or, "Wie viele Kanten?" ('How many edges?' knowing that word thanks to the U-bahn announcements telling you to "mind the gap between platform [edge] (Bahnsteigkante) and train") It's all starting to come together! Finally!
I had conferences for Autumn yesterday and her math teacher was telling me how she is struggling a bit with subtraction. I was surprised by this, to be honest (my child!?!
), and wondered if it was just her being lazy or if she truly struggled. She truly struggles, apparently. So then I wondered if it was perhaps because of the intricacies of German she might not understand and they were like, "Uh, no, that's not it...Autumn is excellent in German. We always speak German. She is very impressive." (Go, Goose!!!) Anyway, Autumn asked what her teachers said and I told her we needed to work on subtraction and she was like, "What's subtraction?" so then I had to say, "Um, minus?" (but pronouncing it in German so it sounds more like mee-nous) and then she understood. She has some other word for it too: "wegnehmen,". Maybe that's similar to what the American children say as "Take-away", you know?
I had been afraid that her German would suffer upon leaving her German kindergarten but it's only gotten stronger at our bilingual school. Other than in English class, I believe most of her day is in German as her class teacher is a German native and all the students seem to be at least German-English bilingual unlike in the boys' classes where there's 4 or so students with no German background whatsoever.
But we're all coming along finally. All of us. Easton's finally changed his attitude towards German and is actually working at it versus his previous way of trying as hard as he could not to learn it. He had excuse after excuse for why he didn't need to learn. His teachers have emphasized that it should be his primary focus right now: more than Maths or Science, his priority should be German. I even had to have a special additional conference about him and his attitude towards it. Eek!
We'll get there. I don't know how far I'll go in my classes because they're expensive and intensive but I enjoy it now because I walk out of my four hours of class thinking in German(ish). That's huge, right!?
Anyway, soon my Deutsch Träume will be slightly more complicated than last night's, right? A girl can dream...
No comments:
Post a Comment