Well the Hausaufgabe yesterday was extremely hard! Sometimes I can finish it in an hour, but yesterday’s took me four hours and I couldnt even finish it! It was about what I was talking about yesterday, the Pronominaladjektivs. I think it will take me a while before I understand these. I am lucky because my mum speaks a bit of German, so often if I am having trouble with my hausaufgabe I phone her and she can help me. But now that I am progressing and the lessons are becoming more advanced, sometimes she doesnt understand either! It would be good if I had a very patient German friend who could help me, but somehow I feel shy to ask.

I am also very shy about speaking German, which is a bad habit! I am finding that I am understanding conversation more and more, which I’m really glad about, but I still feel very shy about speaking back! I may try one of the konversation kurses offered at Deutsch Akademie, or will advertise for a tandem (where you meet someone to practise conversation by way of exchange, so in my case I would practise German and the person I was paired with would practise English).

I have been told by people that the only way to improve your spoken German is to really practise it, which makes sense. It is my goal for this week to begin practising more.

In terms of sights in Berlin – well it really depends what interests you! I love film, so my favourite museum is the film museum – I would definitely recommend that! I also love animals so I enjoy going to the zoo and the aquarium/reptile/amphibean house. I love the kanals and the parks very much as well. There are always a lot of swans in the kanal,  especially around Kottbusser tor. A lot of people feed them so whenever they see a person they begin swimming towards you!

Montag.

Today I feel very exhausted after an extremely busy weekend with my friends! Amy left on Sunday and Serena left early this morning. I was so tired that I considered not going to class, but then I remembered that if you miss a lesson it can be very hard to find your place again, so I made up my mind to go!

We are doing something called pronominaladjektives, which I find very difficult. The lessons are quite varied, sometimes I find that after a bit of effort I have a fairly good idea of what is going on, other times it is super hard and I feel like I’m just taking guesses! This was one of those times, though I think it would’ve been easier if I knew all of the prepositions by heart. I can see that this is something I will need to revise!

Life in Berlin is a lot of fun, I’ve said that before but since I’m supposed to write about my Berlin leisure activities I thought I would begin with this fact! My favourite leisure activities are meeting with friends, walking with Lukas and going for fruestuck/kaffee in a cafe and just soaking up the atmosphere. I have been here for almost 7 months and I often still feel excited just walking down the street as it is such a beautiful city!

My favourite places to walk with Lukas are along the kanal near my apartment and in Hasenheide park, especially in the Hundt park! Lukas is very shy in the hundt park, he mostly stays by me. I think maybe the other dogs are speaking German? Either way, he seems a bit confused by them and doesnt play much. Maybe dogs do speak in other languages too!

Today I am very excited because some of my friends from the UK arrive for a visit! One of the hard parts of living in a different country is missing your friends back home. My friends are called Serena (from Italy) and Amy (from Wales). They both love Berlin so they are very happy to come here – this is another very good thing about living in Berlin, people always want to come and visit you! In the 6/7 months that I’ve lived here, I think each month I have had a visitor of some sort.

Here are my friends – this is what they do to relax! Amy is carving a pumpkin :)

I’m now planning activities for my visitors – I want them to get an authentic taste of Berlin and see how much is on offer! My plan is to take them to some of my favourite places to eat, both restaurants and take-aways, and to some of my favourite bars and to some museums. This weekend there seem to be a number of performance/cabaret nights in Berlin, so we will go to see some of these as well. I also insist that we drink Roetkappchen (Sekt), which is a very popular drink in Berlin, very expensive in the UK but very cheap here! As I live in Kreuzberg I am very fortunate because most of my favourite bars and places to eat are right on my door step! There is a cafe just up the road from me that does amazing fruestuck, a great sushi restaurant in Kottbusser Tor, a great place for falafel in Schoenleinstr and a great bar in Neukoelln. I feel very lucky to live here!

In terms of the online Deutsch Kurses, as I have no internet at home I haven’t had the opportunity to use these much yet. But I do recommend looking on the internet if you are having trouble doing your Hausaufgabe, or simply want to practise :)

Another day at Deutsch Akademie!

I like that we use games in the group sometimes…it does somehow make learning easier! I just hope it all sticks. As the course progresses and things get more complicated, I sometimes begin to feel overwhelmed by how much I still have to learn! For a long time my main difficulty was the grammar, so I worked on this in particular. But now that I understand the grammar better I realise that my vocabulary is not so good! So now I need to remember to try and work on both in equal amounts. One of the things I find the hardest to understand is the cases: nominative, genetiv, akkusitive and dativ. This is something that isnt so much of a part of English. I’m hoping that when my understanding of the vocabulary increases and I get used to reading German sentences, that things such as case will begin to come more naturally. At the moment I find myself looking it up in my book to remind myself!

Like I said in my previous entry, everyone is very friendly on the course. My main friends in Berlin are the friends I already have here, and Lukas of course! I met my friends here when on visits and through acquaintances – I used to know a few people from the UK who lived here. These days my friends tend to be mainly French, Swedish, German and American. At the moment I only know 3 other English people in Berlin! My personal experience is that it is not hard to find a sense of community in Berlin, which of course is a very positive thing!

Today I panicked because it took me a while to understand the lesson due to missing one yesterday! This is a good hint: try not to miss lessons, pariticularly as you progress up the levels, as sometimes a lot of very important stuff can be covered in one lesson! Fortunately later on in the day I started to pick things up :) I must try not to miss any more!

Its a very satisfying when things finally start to make sense, it makes all the times when you don’t have a clue whats going on seem worthwhile!

My collegues on the course are all learning German for a variety of reasons. For one young man it is because he wants to study in Germany, for another woman it is because her husband is German and she lives here. Some people on the course speak 5 or more languages! Most speak more than two. I think I am the only one who as yet only really speaks one! (English!) This is unfortuately very typical for an English person. Though I also learned Finnish for a while as my mother is Finnish.

Everyone on the course is very friendly, there is a nice atmosphere. I tend to be one of the oldest though, at 29! One of the girls in my previous course was only 17! I wish that I had begun learning languages earlier when my brain was a bit more receptive. Oh well!

Here is a crossroads near where I live. I personally really like the grafitti in Berlin!

Hello!

This Monday I was unable to go to Deutsch Akademie as I was feeling unwell – each time I feel unwell these days I worry about schwine grippe! Fortunately it wasn’t schwine grippe at all, I was fine after a day taking it easy :) I also spent most of the day studying my German so as not to get behind.

I think what I like best about my German classes in Berlin at the Deutsch Akademie is that the classes are small and the teachers are very attentive. I have a lot of difficulty learning languages and I also feel shy about speaking in front of a group. Under these circumstances, it is really helpful to be in a small group – its much less intimidating! Its also helpful to have an attentive teacher. I imagine in larger classes you wouldn’t get as much individual help. The current teacher I have has been my favourite so far. She is very good at explaining things and you don’t feel stupid if you need to have the same thing explained more than once!

What motivates me to learn German on a daily basis is the desire to understand what people are talking about! There are also a lot of things that would be easier if I knew German…like dealing with problems for instance! When my heating wasn’t working in my apartment I found it hard to get it fixed, and the reason I still do not have my own internet connection despite living in my apartment for 5 months is because I havent figured out the necerssary German! So this is something I hope to do soon.

As I wasnt at Deutsch Akademie today I have taken a picture of my coffee break at home!