The First Words You Learn Are The Ones You Don’t Need
Coming from Canada I was required to learn french in school from a very early age. I can safely say that if put into a compromising situation I can repeat the alphabet to a tee. Aside from this, my retention has been minimal.
When I was 13 I was exposed to my first German word: “scheiße” or as I assumed, “shiza”, and until I started travelling in my early 20s this was the only German word I ever knew or cared to.
Love Changes You
No, this is not where I am going to begin to spout off how I met some amazing person, rather I fell in love with the city of Berlin. My goal: to go back to Canada, save up money and move back to the metropolis of utter and total bliss.
Goal accomplished but not without its challenges.
Moving to Germany 5 months ago I came with many goals — none of which were learning the language immediately. Mostly because I thought it was too hard, too expensive, took too much time or — to be honest– not worth my time.
Everyone — almost everyone–you talk to, especially in Berlin, has got your back in the “universal” language of english. So, what’s the point?
There are a few reasons I want to learn german:
- ) The bureaucracy hopefully won’t be so painful. Though, let’s face it, it will probably still suck but at least it won’t feel like I am having my eyes gouged out and my feet stomped on at the same time.
- ) I plan to be here for the unforeseeable future. Although my job allows me to work with no german, if I want to advance my career prospects I will need to learn the language.
- ) If I want to have german friends — they will probably think I am an asshole if I don’t even try.
Learning without schools
Praise the Internet and its wealth of resources both on mobile and desktop because I am not a fan of class based learning. Trying to sit still and stare at some –in my head– “imbecile” spout off information that I can easily get through interactive resources is enough to make me cry.
My main source — Duolingo.
Why?
It’s on my mobile.
Being able to access these resources from anywhere and with very little data consumption make this pocket-sized learner my go to, but it’s limited.
I like having a human connection where they can encourage me to keep learning, to share their experiences and ultimately for me to feed off their brains…
Over the two-weeks of Language Gym I hope to learn new things, meet new people to learn with and discover new resources.
In six-months I’d like to be able to go to a small town in Germany and make small talk with someone who can’t speak english. To be able to understand the majority of what’s going on around me. And for people to say WOAH your level of german is not so bad :)
In sum
The german language is not going away so my ability to speak it needs to be taken head on. I am stoked to pick up some new tricks and build my confidence to speak.