Today is the last day of my class for the month of August in DeutschAkademie. In the beginning of the class we learnt about weathers. It is interesting to know new vocabularies on weather since around this time in Berlin the weather is changing dramatically from very hot to quite cold in mere few days. So I did manage to tell to my friend how I feel whenever it is cold and windy in German. Later on in class we were taught about some useful conversation that we could make while doing some groceries shopping in the market. Meanwhile before, I already know on how to ask how much is the price? Now I even know how to ask if I could try some of the food. That is indeed very useful when you are hungry in market ;-) We were made into partner of 2 people and were given the task of going around the market just next to DeutschAkademie and try to practice what we were taught in class. Eventhough I didn’t buy anything since I didn’t find anything interesting, some of my friends bought 2 pieces of carrots and 3 roses to be given as a present for my girl classmates. We ended our last class by sitting in the café just next to the market and discussed our experiences in the market. Such a good end after a month of class but it is quite hard to say good bye as well. A lot of my classmates are going back to their countries and after exchanging our contacts, we gave each other a final hugs and off we go to our own way. I hope to be able to see them again one day and this time speak fluent German with them. That is what I hope and I wish it will become true.

One area I found really amazing to go for nightlife in Berlin is in Kreuzberg. It is situated in the south of Mitte and one of the most interesting districts out of all 12 districts in Berlin. Historically and true to now it is synonymous to being to being one of the poorest areas in Berlin and known for its large population of immigrants. Nevertheless, now Kreuzberg has become one of the most trendiest place in Berlin where a lot of clubs, bars and restaurants are located.

I went to a bar called Café Luzia with 3 other friends from DeutschAkademie. Very funny since when I was there I didn’t see anyone drinking coffee but yet it is called a Café and it is very popular. It was quite a struggle for us to find a place to sit when we first came in. Too bad, the only sits available was in the smoking section. Wile we were there, we talked about our experience in class and even discussed about German grammars. While it might sounds boring, but actually it was not. We had a terrific time together. I hope to do this again every week ;-)

One amazing place to visit when in Berlin is a place about 1 hour train ride from Berlin city center called Potsdam. Don’t get confuse with Potzdamer Platz which is in the city center! While it is connected under the same S-Bahn line from Berlin, I just got to know later that it is in fact another city! Not a small one either, it is a capital of German Federal State of Bradenburg. It used to be a residence of Prussian King until 1918 and now it is the largest world heritage site in Germany.

Among interesting places to see in Potsdam are the Potsdam City Palace, St. Nicholas Church, the Old town hall, Glienicke Bridge and many others. But one of my favorite among all is the Dutch quarters where there are rows of nice small shops, cafes and restaurant. I went to one of the small café and they have a small nice garden where I can sit and enjoy my tea. To my surprise, the café is actually also the owner’s residence and they live upstairs. That has to be a dream job. To wake up in a nice quarters and work downstairs of your own house everyday ;-)

Since I studied medicine before coming to Berlin, I am most familiar with organs and body parts. So out of all topics we learnt in class, there was one topic really excites me the most; the body parts! We spent about 2 days learning about this topic and not only we learnt about body parts, we did learn some basic about medicine too such as how to say “I’m sick”, “I have pain or headache”, and et cetera. While that is very important for everyone since we all can fall sick and need to go to doctor or pharmacies to convey our problem, for me it is more important since if I decided to stay in Germany for my practice those would be my daily jargon in my daily life. One activity in class we had was to make a circle and one person had to say quickly a body part and the rest had to show which one was it. Sounds easy, but to think in German made it a bit confusing and slow sometimes J

In DeutschAkademie, since we are in a small group in a class we could make quite a lot of activities together. One activity which I found most amusing was ‘The-Name-Game’. While it is quite popular in a lot of countries and it is already hard to play in my native language or in English, this time it was many times harder since we had to play it in German. I’m quite happy to say that I was the second one who guessed it correctly! ;-)

One thing about Germany that I find quite foreign still is a lot of shops are closed on Sunday including supermarket but there are some exception though. Since I’m living in a flat without refrigerator, I can’t keep wet food like meats at home hence the routine of going to eat out every Sunday. While I do go eat out on normal day too, Sunday is almost obligatory. Near my place where I stay in Turmstrasse, I’m lucky enough to have one Indonesian restaurant called Nusantara just about 500m away. Since I’m from Malaysia, we share quite a lot of similar food and taste with Indonesia. The food is amazing and surprisingly for an exotic restaurant, the price will not make a hole in my pocket too. Whenever I feel a bit homesick and crave for Malaysian food, I would go there and pamper my appetite with those delicious delicacies and drinks.

Another routine that I do almost every week is to go out to drink coffee but mostly tea with friends and sometimes alone. I’m a tea addict and I love to go to random places just to drink tea and feel the atmosphere. One tea house which I really find amusing is called Tadshikische Teestube. It is a tea house with central Asian and Russian fusion concept with alluring interior and welcoming atmosphere. It is very popular and I heard that usually it needs reservation in advance.

In German language there are 4 cases which are nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. It has also 3 genders; masculine, feminine and neuter. Since articles (der, die, das) are very important in german language, it is very important to have a good grasp of all 4 cases above while knowing in which gender the noun is. Since learning in DeutschAkademie, I am using a textbook by….and from there in every topic we learnt, the vocabularies of new words related to the topic are marked with different colors (blue=masculine, red=feminine, green=neuter, and yellow=plural) signifying theirs genders. Then the teacher taught us basics of all 4 cases thus making it quite effective learning experience to incorporate the gender and cases to come out with the correct article for every noun. At the same time we learnt a lot of verbs too and so far I can say that my understanding of German language is getting better day by day. I hope after few more months, I can have fluent conversation with local German people ;-)

After couple of weeks in Berlin, one place which always gives me a sense of awe is the German Federal Chancellery building. It is a building of federal agency serving the executive office of the Chancellor. While the original building was built circa 19^th centuries, the new modern version of the building was completed in the year 2001. The magnificent architecture and its colossal size crossing the river somehow made it one of its kinds. Whenever I walk pass through the building I will at least take a moment to take a good view of its grand design. To make it even more dramatic, a lot of sightseeing boats passed through the building under the bridge making the building a captivating sight to just sit and relax watching the scenery.

To add up, next to the German Federal Chancellery building is another mind-blowing architecture; the Reichstag. Full of history, it was also built in the 19^th centuries. Since then, it went through ups and downs of being damage in fire and World War 2. Not until German reunification in 1990 the building was refurbished to its current state by world famous architect Norman Foster. Now it is the building of the German parliament.

One advantage to study in DeutschAkademie is they provide me with online learning tool such as free online German course. Through the platform I can practice my German by doing free exercises based on my level or by choosing particular grammar topic. These online exercises if complemented with normal daily classes are really a good way to improve my understanding on German language. While some free site such as Duolingo also provide free language learning, but I found DeutschAkademie’s version is much more challenging, much more varieties of topics to choose from and the vocabularies used in each sentences are more wide-range. After each exercise, there will be a statistic of my last 30 days solved exercises and from there I can track my performance. Since I am quite a beginner in German, most of the time I would practice my basics in adjective and adverb to strengthen my vocabularies.

I’m in my mid 20’s now and I believe the secret to longevity and healthy living is to eat healthy and exercise regularly. So that is why I spent a lot of my evening doing sports and exercise. In my area where I live, there is a long stretch of path for jogging along the river. 10 minutes away, there is a public park with facilities for work-out. So what I regularly do is to jog from home to the park and do some work out and then walk back home. Thanks to the weather in summer, I could do this routine almost every day and save some money to not pay a membership in a gym. Unfortunately this has to stop in winter.

Since I’m rather new in Berlin, I’m still looking for a partner to play squash and maybe join a group to play football in the future. I realized there are also several public table tennis tables in parks everywhere. I think I would try that too. Yes why not? ;-)

Free German Audio Course

I was told by a friend who is fluently in Spanish as her third language, one way to learn language really effectively is through reading. So I went out to buy a German book. But then I realized that I need a lot of vocabularies to understand a sentence. So I decided to try e-book made available by DeutschAkademie. What is good about the e-book is, it starts at very basic for total beginner like me with both English and German as a language medium. Moreover, I do not only improve my reading and knowing knew words, I am practicing my comprehension through the audio. So I think that is very good as a starter before beginning to read a higher level writing such as novel or newspaper. I have to keep on reminding myself, to be fluent in a language I have to be good in speaking, reading, listening and writing. The e-book basically helps me with at least reading and listening part.