So it’s the last day of our first week, and boy we’ve learnt a lot!  I already feel a lot more confident if I’m approached in the street and asked a question, or if I’m speaking to a cashier in a shop. I’m not sure what I say is always completely correct, but at least I’m able to say something other than ‘Ich bin Englisch’ ;)The lesson started with a test (arrgh), but it turned out to be fine and a really good way to see the progress being made.  Today was also a chance for us to go over some of the stuff we learnt in days 1-3.  Bettina gave us a little maths test to do to practice our numbers, for example.  This was fun for me as I love maths – although I did read some of the numbers (which were written in German) wrongly as I was too busy trying to quickly work out the sums!  I’m training to become a maths teacher back in England from September, so as well as learning German these classes have been a good way for me to pick up some tips from Bettina’s teaching, as she’s a really good teacher.We also moved on to section 2 of the book today (yes, already!).  We started by navigating a typical registration form; learning how to ask for what our address/telephone number/email address was, and if we were married/had kids etc.  This was all very useful, although I do wish I’d done this lesson before I spent around 4 hours trying to register in the Kreisverwaltungsreferat in Poccistrasse in my first week!We spent the last part of the lesson learning the alphabet, and had to spell out our names, email address etc to each other. This was great for me as I’m having real trouble pronouncing most German words.  Most of the alphabet is quite similar to English, although j (which is ‘jot’ is German) and y (which is Ypsilon) were less intuitive!Ok, so that’s week one over.  I’ve had a great time and looking forward to the next 3 weeks….

We’re into our third day of the 1A course now and I think everyone’s starting to feel like they’re making some progress.  We’re now able to write and speak a simple dialogue to each other, and seem to be building on what we can say in every lesson.  My list of new sentences learnt is definitely getting longer by the day! And now includes: ‘My name is…’ (Ich heisse Caroline), ‘I am …years old’ (Ich bin 24 jahre alt), ‘I come from…’(Ich komme aus England), ‘I live in…’ (Ich wohne in Schwabing, Muenchen), ‘I can speak….’, (Ich spreche Englisch und etwas Japanisch), and ‘I am…’ (Ich bin Lehrerin) to name just a few.To practice the numbers we learnt yesterday, Bettina suggested that we played Bingo.   If you don’t know what Bingo is, it’s a gambling game mainly played in the UK, US and Australia.  Players each get a grid of random numbers, and then mark off numbers on their grid as they are randomly called out.  If you mark off a complete row, column or straight diagonal of numbers, you shout “Bingo” and you win a prize.  In the UK Bingo is big business – there are huge Bingo halls in every town, which often link up to country wide games where the winner can pocket hundreds of thousands of pounds.  Of course, this wasn’t the case with our Bingo game ;)

Anyway…we had a go at Bingo and it turned out to be really good fun. I managed to win the first game and got to call out the numbers for some of the next game, which was good practice at pronouncing words in German (the bit I’m definitely finding the hardest! )

Yesterday we started to learn how to ask ‘where do you come from?’ and how to respond.  It was great to see that our class is so diverse.  All ten of us are from different countries from all over the world – from Russia, the USA, Australia and Singapore; to Italy, Bosnia, France and England in Europe; and Mexico and Brazil in South America.  I did a similar course in Japan a few years ago, and I think meeting people from all over the world is definitely one of the best things about doing a course like this…. and of course, learning the German needed to get by in Munich too!  So from now on, if anyone asks ‘Woher kommst du?’ I’ll be able to say ‘Ich komme aus England’ :)On the same subject, I’m really pleased I’ve got this opportunity to experience living in a different country. Munich/Bavaria is quite different from where I’m from in England (Nottingham – which is in the Midlands).  For a start, it has nice weather in the summer! I really like that this gives me the opportunity to get outdoors more. It’s safe to cycle everywhere and there are lots of street cafes… …and not to mention beer gardens.  I even spent last weekend in the Alps surrounded by huge snowed-capped mountains!  A new experience for me.In today’s lesson we learnt about grammatical conjugation – i.e. I am, you are, he/she is etc.  Or auf Deutsch – Ich bin, du bist, er/sie ist.  It’s complicated in a new language, but I think I’ve got the hang of it (for now anyway..) as a lot of things are coming back to me from learning German at school.  It’s definitely going to be important as we learn more over the coming weeks.  We also spent some time on yes/no questions, and on counting/numbers.Right, better get on with my homework..Caroline