Time flies, it seems not long ago that I posted my „Last A2-1 Lesson“, and now, it comes to the A2-2.

This month we are so lucky to have Katrin to be our teacher. She is a super patient and mother-like teacher (and actually she is a mother too). Whenever we encounter vocabularies that we don’t understand or forget, even if we’ve already asked for a few times before, she also explains to us with an affable smile. Plus nearly 90% of the time that she explains a word in German, which although is more difficult for both the teacher and students, this way helps us listen, think and remember better. I truly appreciate her effort and patience.

Katrin often teaches us with games too, like Bingo, chess, drawing cards, etc. No doubt this dynamic approach increases our involvement in class and roots our impression to the things we learn. And the funny thing is, the materials for our games are mostly from her sons‘ toys!

After studying in DeutschAkademie for 3 months, I do find my progress in German. A good choice I would say. Teachers are great, the class with a maximum of 10 capacity is brilliant. And the learning atmosphere is good too. Hope to have a chance to come back to Berlin and continue my German class here!

我很善忘. 懂我的也知我可以把同一番話跟同一個人重複三遍後仍不記起自己曾經說過, 要我複述哪天跟誰吃過什麼去過哪裡亦不是易事. 總之要我突然講起一些事情的經過或談話內容, 我多半都要想大半天也不知能否找到答案.

在某程度而言, 善忘可能是好事. 對於過去不快的回憶, 其實我記得不太清楚. 因為大腦就好像電腦般, 怕那些回憶是病毒對主體有害, 於是自動把細節刪除, 剩下載著事發年月日地點的資料夾, 和印象中最深刻的感覺.

然而, 當再次遇到和回憶相似相關的事物或情景時, 奇妙地可以使那些回憶活龍活現的勾劃出來. 有如巫師走進魔杖店, 把最匹配的魔杖從在千百盒當中喚醒. 然後魔杖一揮, 就把我帶回那一個時空, 再次經歷每一個細節. 不同的是, 重拾的感覺應該被美化了. 回憶總是美好的, 因為它少了當天的執著, 放開了, 就自然更懂得珍惜那可一不可再的可貴.

After learning German for nearly 3 months, I am still very used to speaking in English. Chatting with classmates in breaks or after class, enquiring for information, etc. Sometimes even during the lesson, when i encounter some words that I don’t know or forget, or come to a little more complicated situations or questions that is not easy to express, I would often turn back to English. However, I know it is not the right attitude to hold.

Often when learning a new language, one needs confidence in addition to diligence. It is unavoidable that you will make mistakes when you speak with a new language. And thus, you should be „fearless“ and try you best to express. You will also have to forgo the convenience of using your own or more familiar language, and grasp the chance of using the language you are learning in daily conversations, so as to get more chances to practise, and at the same time see if the locals can understand what you want to say.

Let’s work hard together and be a native German!

It’s always a nice thing to have friends or family coming from your hometown visiting to visit when you are abroad. Last Thursday my friend from Hong Kong came to Berlin. We had a superb lunch at Löwenbräu.

The restaurant serves traditional German food, I guess it’s from the southern German in Bavaria. We ordered the pork knuckle (Schweinehaxe), the Nürnberger sausages (Nürnberger Rostbratwürstel) and the meat loaf (Leberkäse) as main dishes, as for the desserts, we had Apfelstrudel and some cubic cakes with raisins. They allll taste so good. Really worth trying!

After that, we went to the must-go places, such as the Brandenburger Tor, the Reichstag, the Friedrichstraße, the Tiergarten and Charlie Checkpoint. We had such a great time and I am looking forward to meeting more friends from my hometown.

When learning a new language, it is always important to practise after class. Hence I have tried with my classmate Vickie previously to meet up once or twice a week and chat in German.

We have been to quite a few places, such as a small library near her home, where we borrowed some children books and learn basic vocabularies. We also sat in the Tiergarten and shared each other’s culture and language. It is also nice walking along the Friedrichstrasse, and even asked for directions in German! One evening, we watched a play in Theatre am Schiffbauerdamm, but we could hardly understand the meaning of it.

Although it is sometimes not easy to express ourselves in German, as there are often words that we don’t know or forget. Nevertheless, whenever we encountered some words that we haven’t learnt before, we would always look up in the dictionary. This could in fact helps memorizing the words better than revising on your own, coz we actually use them and involve in the conversation. Therefore, I strongly encourage you to meet with your classmates after class and sprichst auf Deutsch!

Yesterday after shopping with my friend, we went to the restaurant Doree in Schöneberg (http://www.qype.com/place/102884-Doree-Berlin). The food doesn’t taste super good, but the price is really reasonable.

While enjoying our late lunch, there was a couple sitting next to our table chatting all along. I tried to listen to and understand their conversation, and found that I could grasp the meaning of whole of it and nearly catch 90% of their words. I am so happy to see the progress after studying 2 months in DeutschAkademie. It makes me feel I could mingle in the German society a bit more, and feel less like a foreigner.

Usually when I am on my way with a bus or U- or S-bahn, I would listen to the music and do some reading. However I find it perhaps is a good time to listen to what the people nearby are talking, so as to get more chances for practising my listening skills. Looking forward to seeing a bigger progress in the near future!

Communication is no doubt one of the best ways to learn a language. By using it more often in your daily life, you could pick up the language much faster. That’s why many people choose to live at the place where they want to learn the local language for some time.

However, during daily interaction, people generally may not be so patient to listen and talk with foreigners using their language, short conversation may do fine though. Hence, I find having language partners a nice idea for practising a language, as it often is a win-win situation.

In my case, I met a German who want to learn English. We first contact via emails, usually one time in English, and then in German. Then the first time we went out for sightseeing, we mainly speak in English; and the second time we used German as our major language to communicate.

The chocolate shop that my language partner brought me to: Fassbender & Rausch

It is a great experience to have language partners, not only I can improve my German and learn some colloquial, but somehow I can also improve my English, when he asks me more about the language and make me think how to explain to him. In addition, while learning the language, you would always want to learn the culture and perhaps the history of the place too, and getting in touch with the people there is an excellent way to go more in depth.

Hope you’d find your language partners too for practising your Deutsch and make big progress~

Another month passes and it comes to the end of the class again.

This class is definitely the one that can learn a lot. Both the teacher and the students are very eager to teach and to learn respectively. Most of the students are quick at absorbing new knowledge and the level is relatively high. Whereas the teacher, Patrick, is one of the best language teachers I have ever met. He explains very well and does many grammatical exercises with us. Supplemented with his games and activities, we all enjoyed learning Deutsch. Last but not least, I appreciate very much that he would always seek students’ feedback and adjust his teaching according to our aptitude.

Die „World Press Photo 2011“ Ausstellung ist toll! (http://www.worldpressphoto.org/) Ich habe mit meinen Klassenkameraden gegangen. Wir haben c.a. 3 Stunden geblieben.

Es gibt 2 Etagen in der Ausstellung. Meistes Fotos sind impossant. „Ein Bild spricht mehr als eine Tausend Worte“. Man kann oft die Bewandtnis des Fotos sehen. Weil das Fotos aus Nachrichten oder Realstory machen sind, fühlen wir traurig nach einigem Fotos sehen, zum Beispiel, das Haiti Erdbeben, das Alltagsleben im Afrika. Man würdet fragen, warum da Leute auf der Welt auf diese Weise leben. Und wenn es zu den Naturkatastrophen kommt, werden Menschen so winzig und gebrechlich.

Dennoch ist es gut für uns der Fotos sehen, weil wir der Winkel der Fotographen sehen. Und ich liebe das Motto über die Gründung, „We exist to inspire understanding of the world through quality photojournalism.“ Ich freue mich auf die nächste Ausstellung!

Never underestimate women’s shopping ability. Coz my roommate and I spent a whoooole day in an outlet today. We went to the Designer Outlet Berlin (http://www.designer-outlet-berlin.de), where you can find over 100 international brands and 80 stores, and many of the products are half-priced.

Other than shopping, in fact it’s also nice to spend an afternoon there, to walk along the boulevards and sit at the coffee shop.

The Designer Outlet Berlin is approximately 30 minutes from the city centre (or from DeutschAkedemie). One can take an RE train then a bus to reach there. So if you are a shopaholic, never miss the place!