Schreiben, Sprechen, gut!

J: Ich mag mein Baby sehr

M: ich auch!

J: Did I write that richtig?

J: schriebe richtig?

M: schreiben

M: The sentence before was right

J: Geil!

J: I am a German master!!!

———————————

J: How did you know that?

M: I have canadian holidays loaded in my gmail calender

J: Geil!!!

M: also the german one

J: Also Deutsch rememberance day?

M: nein, der deutsche Kalender mit all den Holiday days which wir haben

M:

M: Wir haben eine geile Sprache!!!

J: Ach, klar!

J: Wir sprechen und scrieben sehr gut Deutsch!

M: schreiben

M: feb. 15th you guys have some alberta holiday

M: you find it when you open your calender and click on some button in the upper right hand corner. Mine says NEW: SPORT CALENDERS

J: Ach quatsch! Us Ontarians don’t care about Alberta holidays

J: SPORT? Wieso?

J: Okay, let me go see this scheiss

M: You are funny.

J: Geil!

M: I know. Google is a bit scary but who cares

J: Ja, das ist sehr geil

J: und frei!

M: you can add so much scheiß until you don’t see anything on your calender anymore

M: kostenlos

J: ich bin nicht verängstigt.

J: ich bin brav.

M: du bist sehr brav!

J: Aber ich mag kostenlos

M: Aber nicht bei Nacht

M: das ist gut so!

J: Ich bin brav bei Nacht!!!!

M: okay!!

 

Deutsche Sprache lernen

It’s SO weird but I’m forgetting a lot of my German and instead, French is flying back into my head.

When I was in Germany, I knew the German verb Sein (to be), off the top of my head. While the same verb in French, Être, I could not remember for the life of me.

Now I’ve forgotten how to conjugate Sein, because every time I try, it is being replaced by Être conjugations. Suddenly I remember Être again, but at the expense of Sein!

Of course my brain has to be this frustrating!! >:|

I passed by the French school yesterday and read their announcement sign. I knew every single word and exactly what it meant. French is MUCH easier for me to understand than German is, but it still surprises me how much I remember from my French days, and how French is just a part of my life living in a bilingual country (even if I only get doses of French in passive ways).

I think learning German helped me get back some of my French!

I was terrible at French, and just went through the motions of learning without really knowing WTH was going on.

Now I’m putting in much more effort to learn German, because it means something to me. I also have positive reinforcements from a cute German smiling at me every time I speak it.

Martin tells me it will all come back to me. Which is sweet, but I know I have to actively keep it up in order to retain anything.

Ich möchte deutsch sprechen, aber deutsch ist sehr schwer.

Writing to my German pen pal

For the past year and a half, I’ve been writing to Martin’s Oma. Here’s a picture of us in her garden:

She lived in Berlin before the wall went up, and knows English because she worked in a law firm. That’s pretty impressive when you think about how long ago that was (pre-1961), and how she (a young woman at the time) was working in a law firm doing international work!

Anyway, I usually write to her in English, but this time I decided to write her in German! Here it is:

Liebe Oma,

Danke für deine Postkarte. Ich denke auch an unseren Trip in Prag.

Diese Woche geht Martin nach Frankreich. Ich möchte mit Martin nach Frankreich gehen, aber ich muss arbeiten. Ich bin ein Englisch Trainer und ich unterichte 5 Klassen.

Wir werden dich bald mal besuchen!

Viele Grüße senden Dir Jessica und Martin

It’s only a simple letter, but took me close to an hour to write! Martin corrected it for me, but I wrote the bones of it so therefore claim it to be my own (and not all of it was terribly wrong either!).

Here is the translation:

Dear Oma,

Thank you for your postcard. I also think about our trip to Prague.

This week Martin is going to France. I want to go with Martin, but I must work. I am an English Trainer and I teach 5 classes.

We want to visit you soon!

Lots of nice greetings from Jessica and Martin

Oma wrote me back so I’ll get to work on the new letter soon.

I’ve also been writing to my own Grandmas, but that’s even harder because I write to them in Chinese. Chinese is much harder to write than German, so that’s some cold comfort for me.

Haarkult Termin

Tomorrow I have a hair appointment!

This is how it went down:

Jimmy: Bitte schön.

Jessica: Ich möchte Haarschnitt Trocken.

Jimmy: Heute?

Jessica: Ja.

Jimmy: *flipping through his book – it’s clearly full* ehhh….

Jessica: Morgen?

Jimmy: Ja! *points at the time 17:30 time slot*

Jessica: Okay!

Asides from speaking to Martin, that was one of the most sophisticated conversations I’ve ever had in German in the outside world!

Jimmy is the very cute & sweet hairstylist I went to last time. I’m excited to go again. Heading there straight after work tomorrow! Tee hee.

German-Chinese food

You know how North Americanized Chinese food looks like this?

With deep fried sweet n sour chicken balls and wonton skins, *shudder*. I’m not a fan, not just because I’m vegetarian, but because it’s so greasy and gross.

‘Europeanized’ Chinese food isn’t overly greasy. This is how you make it. Take note if you want to start a successful Chinese restaurant in Germany.

It’s coming along!

Martin and I were sitting on a patio by the lake, enjoying the nice weather and our ice cream sundays. I turned to him and said:

Denkst du der Hund ist hässlich? – Do you think the dog is ugly?

keke.

How long will it take me to learn German?

My Mom and I were talking on the phone the other day, and I was telling her how I really want to learn German but that it will take me *years*. I said it in a way that suggested I should already be fluent in German. I gave the example that if I had spent the last 3 months in France instead of Germany, that I would be speaking French by now.

This kind of irritates me, because I really want to be able to converse in another language – doesn’t really matter which one. I can’t speak German yet because it is foreign to me and I’m learning it all from scratch. Whereas French is easier because I studied it in school for many years. France, coincidentally, also happens to be nearby!

Obviously I’m learning German because I live in Germany and want to be adept at Martin’s native tongue. I love talking to Martin, and it tickles me to have another language to communicate to him with. There is definitely personal attachment and a drive for me to learn German. It’s just going to be a verrryyy slow process.

Why couldn’t Martin be French?!?!!!!

Requests in German

Martin and I worked on my German over the phone last night. Yay!

Perhaps this sounds boring, but it was A LOT of fun and felt productive too. According to Martin, my German is really coming along nicely. It even surprises him! keke.

I’m proud that I’ve been speaking German a lot more in the outside world. That’s the best way to practice – to actually use it!

Like on Saturday night, we went out and I approached the DJ to make a song request:

Konnen Sie bitte ‘Britney Spears If You Seek Amy’ spielen?

Yes, Britney’s new song, lol. He didn’t play it, because he said he didn’t have it. But also wouldn’t play it because 10 minutes prior he had played Womanizer. He said this all to me in English.

On Sunday evening, we went out for dinner and I ordered my own food:

Ich möchte eine Funghi Pizza.

And on Monday, I had to navigate myself through security at the new office park I teach in:

Hallo! Ich suche meine English classe mit [name of my student].

I also spoke it at the bank last week when I wanted to make a deposit:

Ich möchte [amount €] Einzahlung.

So I’ve been using really simple “I” sentences, which is becoming natural for me to say. But I also need to practice s/he/we/they sentences too, and the verb-noun conjugations that come along with that.

It’s kind of hard to process it all during an actual conversation! Aiyyy. But I will learn it eventually.

Martin and I make up silly role playing games to help me practice; He is the waitor at a restaurant and I have to order for myself and my guest. I always order vegetarian:

ohne fleisch/kein fleisch

So if anyone visits me, rest assured that I am able to handle your food ordering requests in German! Note: it may come out vegetarian though.

I’ve noticed that when I attempt to speak German, Germans (including my German!) appear tickled to hear me speak their language. Like, they instantly turn up their attention at me and my request, and usually smile or look at me with respect. Even though what I’m saying is basic German 101.

It’s pretty cool and makes me feel nice. Positive reinforcement is a good thing.

Ich spreche sehr gut deutsch!

I’ve been speaking more German lately! In the outside world, no less. And people actually understand me!!

I say simple things like:

“Guten Tag!” – Good day.

“Danke, Tschüss!” – Thanks, bye!

“Bitte” – You’re welcome/pardon.

“Entschuldigen” – Excuse me.

And these are the sentences I’m most comfortable saying:

“Ich möchte ein tasse kaffee mit milch und zucker.”

“Ich möchte [insert noun I looked up in the dictionary!].”

“Ich spreche kein deutsch.” – I don’t speak German.

“Sprechen Sie englisch?” – Do you speak English?

“Ein bisschen” – a little

People are nice here in Germany, and I think they find it cute (or funny) when I attempt to utter the few words that I know. I still need to learn grammar, but for now I’m focusing more on building my verbs and nouns.

I also practice with Martin, and he says I’m doing well. Of course I speak some German in class too.

Last night I traveled to Köln to a training session/social function at the school I work for, and met an American girl who also lives in Düsseldorf. She’s really nice and we became instant friends. She speaks German and offered to teach me! So I think my German will really come along since we’re planning to hang out a lot.

The different ways to say “You”

My beginner’s German classes are going well.

There are 6 people in the class: 2 Brits, 2 Americans, me, and the German teacher.

The class is very beginner so we are still learning the basics.

German is a hard language to learn. But fun!

To give an example, there are different ways to say “you“, depending on the situation. Whichever you use, it also changes the conjugation of verb and noun combos (btw, nouns can also be conjugated in German!).

Here is a “you” example:

Wie heißen Sie? – What’s your name?

Wie heißt du? – What’s your name?

How do you pronounce the ‘ß’ letter? It’s called an ‘es-tset‘ and is pronounced like ‘ss‘.

Here’s another example:

Woher kommen Sie? – Where do you come from?

Woher kommst du? – Where do you come from?

For some reason, you can also split ‘Woher‘:

Wo kommen Sie her? – Where do you come from?

Wo kommst du her? – Where do you come from?

Don’t forget to pronounce W’s as V’s and S’s as Z’s:

Wo = ‘voh‘;

Sie = ‘zee‘

Easy-peasy!

I just realized, phonetically my name in German could be spelled like this:

Geßica.

Guten Tag. Mein name ist Geßica!