“That’s good. Go on, read some more.” -Warren G. Harding, 29th United States President
Languages are hard. Our own is easy but learning a second is hard. I am doing my best to learn German and it is going well. I can speak to people, order food, chat about soccer etc. but there is so much that I don’t know and it really is the most frustrating thing when you don’t understand something that you think you should, or if you can’t figure out how to say something that you want to say. It feels like you are trapped in your own head and unable to express your thoughts to be understood. It is annoying and disheartening. I, at least, feel like a failure when I get lost like that and can’t properly form a sentence. There are many reasons why one might not be able to, like misunderstanding what someone just asked/said. This gets you stuck between, trying to parse out what they just said while your brain wants to immediately craft a response without pause as if it was your native language. However, this also happens when you think about something too complex and you are just missing a single word, or multiple. Missing descriptive words is okay for a basic conversation because you can normally leave them out. Yes, you would lose some impact, but you would get the point across. It is when you can’t recall a verb or noun that really destroys the construction of sentences and flow of a conversation.
This week I have been proofreading a friend’s Bachelor’s Thesis and she is writing about how to teach people secondary languages and it is actually really interesting. While it is looking at the other side of language learning (from the teaching perspective) I think there is still a lot that can be found in it and related to by someone who is a student of a language. This thesis is about 45 pages long I think and I have gone through it completely at least once and I am about 1/4th the way through it the second time. I feel really honored and appreciated having been asked to help read through it but it is so intimidating. It is intimidating because of how important it is for her, but also as a native speaker, I feel like I am expected to know a lot and make everything relatively perfect but I have never been that good at things like this. So I am doing my best, and I told her what I am best and hopefully, my best will be enough.
I seriously think German is a fantastic language, it is incredibly functional, it is interesting and direct. The accents, to me, are kinda funny and just pleasant to hear but it is close enough to my native language where I can at least guess some words I don’t know and get them right most of the time. Language like French or Italian… it’s a guessing game. I have, on multiple occasions messed up bon jour and merci when I was in France, using them interchangeably and obviously using them wrong. Additionally, I can’t even begin to comprehend the number system. Obviously, I never studied French or Italian, taking classes and living there like I have with German, but that doesn’t change the fact that even with the little things in French I have tried to learn are things that just do not make a connection in my mind. For whatever reason, I can’t figure it out but I just accept it for now, but I made a promise to a group of very good friends from France that I will learn the basics and commit them to memory by the next time I get there and I intend to do it… but luckily for me, I am not returning soon so I have a bit of time.
My friend who I am staying with, on the opposite end of the spectrum from me, has absolutely no desire to learn German, he sees it as an expensive opportunity cost that is not worth the time and effort even though he has been in Germany for over a year at this point. It is his choice but I find it so funny at the level of effort, or lack of effort, he has put in to not learning the language. He can say hello, goodbye, thank you, a few basic food choices and that’s about it. He lives in Munich and kind of relies on the fact that the large majority of people here are able to speak English as well and he has been surviving this way since he got here. I am happy it is working out for him but I could never imagine being here without knowing German to a reasonable level. He wants to eventually move to Berlin, more English accessibility as well as the fact that in Berlin EVERY SINGLE STORE doesn’t close at 8 pm and stay closed on Sundays like they ALL do in Bayern.
I think sometime either this week or next, I will attempt to write a whole post just in German to see if I can do it. Without using a translator or googling things. Just going off what I have in my mind. That will be chaos but it might be a fun exercise.