About Me
- Kristi
- The Boy, 2 Muttleys and I have finally realized our dream of living 1 mile from the Lindt Chocolate Factory. Leaving Atlanta (the World of Coke) for Zurich (the World of Chocolate) hasn't come without challenges, incredible fun or giggles. Follow along as I chronicle our adventures as we acclimate to this new Swiss lifestyle.
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Thursday, April 15, 2010
Der, Die oder Das- What the What?
Today marks the end of my Intensive German class. I have come a long way my friends but I am nowhere near where I hope to be someday. I compare my current competence to a rebellious teenager:
1. I have to think before I speak or else I may offend someone (inadvertently of course).
2. When being spoken to, I look all angsty, like the teens from Twighlight.
3. I don't talk that much and when I do, my sentences consist of 3-4 words with "nicht" (commonly used as a negation) being the word I use most often.
Many times over the past 5 months I have considered running away from class while making this dramatic exit: "You don't understand me and I don't understand you!". I subsequently slam the door and meet a hot vampire and all is right with the world again. Ok, I saw Twighlight for the first time last weekend and have been cast under its uber-tween spell. I am OK with this, the dude in it is totally hot.
It has also been a constant struggle to not feel like a complete dumb ass. Learning a language has this strange way of bringing out the worst in your ego and mine has been bruised pretty badly, like Ed Norton in Fight Club.
While I have had my downs, there have been more than enough ups to compensate. Take for instance the day I tried to explain my word association technique to my fellow classmates. In the German language, you have what are called "articles" designating a noun. The noun can be feminine, masculine or neutral and a lot of times the designation makes absolutely no sense.
On this particular day everyone was frustrated so I decided to share what helped me the most. My first tip was with an easy word- das Madchen which means "little girl". "Das" is the neutral article and pairing it with the word that means little girl is of course counterintuitive. Why in the holy frackin world would they make a little girl neutral? A little girl should be feminine or "die". So I told the class to just think of Jamie Lee Curtis. She was born sort of neutral as she had both the "der" and the "die", which cancelled each other out making her more of a "das". Needless to say I got a lot of stares after this tip.
After the stares I tried another tip. This time I used a slightly more difficult word- der Kase which means "cheese". We had just gotten through learning the rule "if a noun ends in "e" then 90% of the time it is feminine or "die". And then came cheese in all its masculinity and I told the class- "just think of a guy who hasn't showered in a really long time and you..." I didn't get a chance to finish as I got a lot of "ewwwws". I bet no one has forgotten the article for cheese though. I did what I had to do to help the class as we were all drowning. I was Jack saving Rose in the Titanic, all the while sacrificing myself for the greater good.
A few more examples of my word association skills:
1. die Welt- feminine- the World- chicks rule
2. die Schlange- feminine- snake- chicks don't have one
3. die Wurst- feminine- sausage- again, chicks don't have one
This morning the Boy asked me if I would miss class. My first reaction was "hell no, I live in Zurich not Crazy Town". Then I got to thinking more about my experience and what it did for me. It did more than teach me a language that I still barely know, it also made me a more self confident Expat. It gave me that much needed sense of belonging and accomplishment that I used to receive from working. It has also garnered the respect of several German speakers I have happened across. It is easy to get by here without learning German so when an English speaker tries, it doesn't go unnoticed. I encourage anyone making a move abroad to at the very least take a beginners course as it can really do so much for you.
I plan to continue with my studies but in a much less intensive fashion. In addition to the 5 notebooks full of German grammar, I have all sorts of notes describing funny things that have taken place in class. I am like Woody Allen: I promise more stories to come taking place in the same place, on the same subject matter, with the same muse.
Labels:
Expat Life,
Language
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4 comments:
Congratulations!! I want a blog post in German from ya :) You would be proud of me. I picked up the Rosetta again yesterday. Ich habe eine Katze in meine Hose.
Yeah, I'm learning Spanish and while it's fun, it's also an ego blow when you realize how you have to go back to total basics and sound like a kindergartner half the time!
Deb, hopefully you are in Tulip land by now and successfully completed your first European road trip! Soon I will blog in Deutsch, ich verspreche.
Kristin, I agree about feeling/sounding like a Kindergartner but there is one key difference- an actual Kindergartner would pick up a language way easier than you and I. German is fun sometimes and the word "fahrt" still makes me giggle.
great! i totally get what you mean!
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