Author Archives: Luisa

Never too old to be a kid

Few months ago, while in Romania, I started my first German classes with a private teacher – Madame Daianu. She was a 60 year old woman, very beautiful and warm. The perfect grandmother look!

After few classes, she wanted to do something a bit more interesting. “Let’s read Little Red Riding Hood” she said. I got really excited about reading a real story, not just a short fragment of a lesson, but my excitement lasted for… only two lines.  Because the text seemed to me really complicated and most of the words were new.  She took the book away and said “Hmm…I think it is too difficult for you…”

So, here I am, carrying my 29 years for nothing. Because, when it comes to German language, I’m still a baby!

Yesterday I attended my third German class at Deutsch Akademie and the baby feeling came back to me. Because, during the class, we played with dices and numbers, we wrote with colored pencils and turned some colored pages into posters.  We asked each other all sort of funny questions and got interesting answers. Do you know why the sun is yellow or why are the people lazy? I found out yesterday!

We worked in teams, we spoke about our favourite movies and shared experiences. The atmosphere was really positive and all students enjoyed the class. Once again, all those games and colors made me feel like I was 4 again and I was just about to turn 5 in another language.

I simply love being a kid! Because children can easily learn anything. Even German.

Der, Die and Das are my new friends

Hi everybody!

My name is Luisa, I’m from Romania and I came to Berlin three weeks ago. Even after three weeks everything is still new to me. I have no idea where this city starts and where it ends.  I met new people, went to parties, saw movies, cooked with friends.  Probably you already know the three golden questions that connect foreigners in here – “what’s your name?”, “where do you come from?”…”do you speak German?”.

I don’t speak German, but I will. This was my most common answer. So common and so simple that I’ve never imagined I would have to explain myself. I wasn’t expecting to be asked why. Why do I want to learn it.

And this is how I met Tom – a funny Irish that has been living in Berlin for almost 4 years.  He teaches English and doesn’t really care that “Guten Tag”, “Danke sehr”, “Speisekarte” , “U-Bahn” and “Geld” are not the only German words in the dictionary. “Why should I? Everybody speaks English!”.

And this is how I met Lisa, from Italy. She doesn’t feel like learning German either. “As long as they understand “pasta” and “pizza”, I’m fine” says Lisa with a smile.

And this is how I met Francois, a web designer. And more.  And eventually, after three weeks, I realized I only heard German for one evening.  In Germany!

I personally think it’s wonderful to speak the language of the country you live in. To make jokes or even have a fight in that language!

To all of you who dare to add “der, die, das” as a friend, congrats and viel Glück!