So hello there!!! I’m back due to popular demand (really just my teacher saying my writing was good) and thought I’d share some thoughts every now and then of how the next course (A1-2) is going.

So, the first thing I have noticed now is how much I think in German alongside English. It’s actually been hard to write this blog and now before I go to sleep, I’m often muttering bits of grammar which I must say must pain my husband with all the mistakes I make but today impressed the In-Laws!!!Woohoo!!! I was even able to have a good conversation with them for 11 minutes without help!!! (Check out my German accuracy???)

Over the weekend, my husband and I attended a wedding at my church and was delighted with (what is fast becoming) the “Typically European” wedding games. One of the games was where the couple had to throw darts at balloons to win the money in them. Testing Teamwork I think?!?! There, I had the opportunity to practice all the German I knew and although I got decidedly tired earlier than normal, everyone was very impressed with how much German I knew in such a short time (THANKYOU DeutschAkademie!!!). Apparently, they all understood me  too and even said I didn’t have an accent – I took this as a compliment though not sure where I was supposed to get one from.

I started asking what people did for jobs/professions too and found that this was just in line with what we started with this week. Today, I ran around Munich to see if I could spot people in action; see if you can guess what people are doing or who would work here.

Now, we have 6 more students in our class from Poland, Greece, Mexico and Romania. They are all lovely and we have a few more guys now too. Today, we found out that they haven’t taken the A1-1 course at the DeutschAkademie and so the last few days our teacher has been going over the Dativ/Akkusativ Grammar again. I am very pleased about this as I’ve actually really struggled to get back into the learning process. I think knowing that I had finished one course must have flipped a switch in my brain or something and it’s taken a good couple of days to get back into it. As the oldest in the class now, I take that as my excuse as the others, despite not knowing a few things are actually doing really well. I hope tomorrow’s test proves otherwise and that Age, really is nothing but a number.

Resisting temptation in face of adversity

As you can see today, the first test was actually resisting all the goodies above. We all brought little chocolates and sweets and I made the cake which everyone added fruit to which made it very nice. It is also one of my classmates birthday tomorrow and as we found out that in German tradition, it is not good luck to celebrate the birthday before the actual date, we kinda made it a celebration of the end of the course too.

With such a lovely atmosphere and all the food to look forward to, we actually all readily agreed to complete our tests before we ate the food. We did the longest first which was the first 4 lessons together that enabled us to really review almost all we had learned. It had the format of the official tests you get at Goethe Institute (Formal Examination Institute). This is with reading, listening, writing and speaking parts. We all did really well too with only a few things wrong but obviously food is a great motivation. There was such a nice feeling between us, so when our teacher sneaked in another quiz for us to do together, it really boosted our confidence when doing the Lektion 6 test – on Dative, city features and dates. I did okay on that too and when we did the speaking practice, I personally was much more confident and happy to do it. I actually think I can maybe share what I said today which was basically introducing myself by saying my name, how old I am, where I come from and what languages I can speak – I’m not promising anything but I’m in the mode of “JUST DO IT” now, so here goes.

Ich heisse Grace. Ich bin 28 Jahre alt. Ich komme aus England, Grossbritannien. Ich wohne in München. Ich spreche Englisch und ein bisschen Deutsch.

Phew!!

So having completed this part of A1, it really was mixed feelings today. Sad, because we had all had a really nice time together and had really supported each other in our learning and not everyone was continuing but happy because we all felt we had really achieved a lot and so it was quite a positive end.

Getting by with a little help from my friends!!!

So I now move to the next level, with enthusiasm and confidence – “Gung-ho” even as they say in England. Yet my husband shared a common word – “Aufpassen!!” [Take care] as I start the next course. He referred me to a famous author – Mark Twain who actually wrote an essay on his opinion of the German language. Just Google this if you’re interested further but to be honest, it is nice to know that others have struggled too but I’m happy to say that I am feeling very hopeful right now and truly believe nothing is impossible especially if you can “Get by with a little help, from my friends”.

Good luck in the future to all in my classmates who don’t continue now. I wish you all the best and very glad I got to meet you all. Thanks for all your support in the lessons.

A final Tschuss & Gute Nacht.

So as we come to the close of A1-1 course, a time of reflection is imminent (aka Evaluation Form time) and today is no exception. It was a wonderful surprise today as I traipsed the streets of Munich hunting for a mouse repellent plug, that I actually had the vocabulary to ask shop attendants for what I wanted in German!!! I found myself regularly rehearsing (obviously silently) what I wanted to say, as I hunted one down in each of the 5/6 shops I visited, but sadly at the last minute ask them if they spoke English. Of course, the joy of Munich and I guess most of Germany’s cities is, that many do speak and understand English well. This really does us foreigners no favours. Surely, this is why I took the course and yet although I have come quite far (our teacher said she was proud of us today so I guess I have) I’m still not quite feeling the confidence yet. I wonder what it will take? I plan to do the next course with Deutsch Akademie (A1-2) in the next 4 weeks but don’t they say, that confidence comes if you “JUST DO IT”.

I actually think our teacher had this in mind as we practised the new case – DATIV again today. She gave us another little box to help sort yesterday’s newest artikels with the theme: distinguishing between DATIV and the wonderful AKKUSATIVE. If I heard correct, then I think the general difference is WO – refers to DATIV and WOHIN – refers to AKKUSATIVE or in English – Where is the action taking place and Where to/ will the action take place. For example, Cycling in the park

Wir gehen im Park radfahren vs Wir fahren in den Park mit dem Fahrad

or

Lying in bed

Mein Mann liegt im Bett vs Mein Mann geht ins Bett

I have to say that the exercises were good and I surprisingly managed to get more than the majority correct. I guess I can go into tomorrow’s test at least patting myself on the back for today’s attempts.

I hope we get our results tomorrow too as half my class is leaving – sniff. Let’s hope we all do well and can go out with a bang. I think a surprise is due but will have to let you know tomorrow in my final installment. Who knows, I may just prove just how much Deutsch vocab I really know.

In our second lesson this week, we looked at dates again. I think our teacher realised the tongue-twisting nature of the words were a little bit tricky for us and gave us lots of speaking practice again – YAY!!! We also looked at what words indicate position of an item i.e. under, over, in, on etc. and then started on the wonderful case of Dativ.

Dates were still pretty fun to say again and I found I was finding them easier to distinguish. Practice, practice, practice right? We had fun and games with learning the positioning of things with a Hot-Cold game. I.e. Is the ball on the table? Cold. Is the ball behind the cupboard? Hot. Etc.

However, this morning, I ended up playing the same game as I heard sounds from behind my computer table/cupboard. I have to say I’m still yet to find out the source for sure, but me thinks it can only be a small rodent that has sneakily got his foot in the door. However, I think our rodent friend may find our house to be severely lacking in fruit for his labour due to my OCD for cleaning and complete phobia that has led me to get one of those high-pitched plugs today to drive him crazy and away from our home– QUICKLY. Ah, another joy and facility of cities.

MPS - Mouse Positioning System

Having had so many instances over the last few weeks, where we’ve been wanting to make sentences that need the Dativ case, I think many of us were pleased to finally get to use it (officially). I thought I would be one of those people but I think my brain went into the “GO-SLOW” gear at this point. A distinct feature was when I was hearing the words, knowing they made sense but not being able to do much with them and finding them just hanging around my mind like an unfocused fog. Yet, everyone else seemed to pick up super quick. I’m not sure whether this is because of my age, recent personal stresses and general busyness or just general slowness but it really was quite a worry at the time. However, hope shone through when our teacher gave us the guideline that this case is generally used for movement, it seemed to insert a little box into my brain to start throwing all the DATIV stuff into. I was so grateful for this, as we have our final test for the course on Thursday and this gave me some hope of at least knowing the words. Sorting it all out can come later – yeah? Any further tips or ideas to get this one, would be very welcome.

Token random thought? Have been thinking recently that I have been struggling with quite a lot of the course. I wonder just how much my age is affecting my learning?  Is learning for the mature person only for the super smart and in school full-time? Discuss.

We started this week learning the names of city facilities like Hospitals, Train stations, Pharmacies, Cinemas etc. We also learned how to say where we lived in the city, how long it takes us to get to school and by which form of transport.

Even though, I live in the east of Munich on a fairly direct route to the city centre, it actually takes me about 30 mins to get to class.

DeutschAkademie is on centre left of map - My home is right.

Many of my classmates live outside the city and it takes them only half of my journey time. I think they all drive which obviously really makes a difference.

I can drive but only just got my license this year and as I learnt to drive on the Left (the “right” side, if you ask me) of the road, I think it would be pretty scary for all if I was let loose on Munich’s roads straight away. It took me a quite a few visits here to know which way to look before I even crossed the road.

It actually took our class a long time to get through Munich’s many city facilities and features. It has several hospitals (one of which I have visited twice already but that’s a long story), many cinemas including one called “Cinema” which has many films in English or it’s original language in Nymphenburger Strasse and a very good Theatre district which many of my classmates have visited already. The Pinakothek in Odeonsplatz region is highly recommended although I am yet to visit.

We’ve also started to learn how to indicate a specific date and numbers like saying the 4th floor or the 10th May. You also only add a couple of letters to the numbers like in English but I am finding it a bit of a tongue-twister to pronounce. My birth date is particularly fun and also when the month is referred to in it’s numerical form i.e. dreizehnten zehnten aka 13th October.

Again, this is definitely one you need to listen carefully too as it could really be the difference between making or breaking an appointment otherwise you really need the line… “Alles, nicht klar!” – (All is not clear!)

From the start, I just want to make an official correction to the last blog I wrote. I pointed out that in German, they use the same word for getting up and getting off (e.g. a train). Unfortunately, this is actually not the case as my husband tactfully told me last week. The word just sounds the same i.e. Aussteigen and Aufstehen

Obviously, when you start to learn a new language, these sort of mistakes happen often and in my search to find out why, I’ve come to realise that words are pronounced here using your tongue in the front of the mouth. This does mean that many of the words sound the same. As I don’t have enough vocabulary to differentiate them, at least from the context – my mistakes are inevitable. My deepest apologies and note that this may be the last time I instruct anyone on Grammar or Pronunciation – at least not for another, … hmmm… decade????

Needless to say, I didn’t quite do my best on the last test and am feeling quite sorry for myself – but I’m off home this weekend to ” My land of hope and glory…” for a bit of home cooking and Mummy & Daddy love. There’s nothing quite like it, wouldn’t you agree? Normally after 6 weeks, I return but it’s been 8 weeks now since I saw them – me thinks, I am well overdue.

In the last class, we learn a bit more about “Trennbar” verbs (aka separating verbs) including the one for “Washing up” and “Tidying up”. This was very useful especially for instructing the “Ol’ Man” (husband that is). He does tend to be very good when helping in the house and I really cannot sing that Katy Perry song whole heartedly. I even have evidence – see below.

Does he wash up????.. yes he washes up... Does he clean up? Yes, he always cleans up.

We also learnt how to say when and where we go out in the evenings. I learned that Pubs and Bars are popular in both cultures but here they are called Beer Gardens (Biergartens). Also, parties and clubs open and close later here too – like 4/5 am. Most of my class are younger than me and don’t tend to leave their homes to go out until 10pm or later. This truly reminds me of my student days and just how long ago that was. I’m now the one heading for my coat and calculating the fastest U-Bahn home round about the time they plan to go out. How did I become so old without noticing? Could it be that even with a young looking face, it’s all about what’s inside that counts? You really should never judge a book by it’s cover.

It seems funny to learn how to greet each other in our native countries having already spent the last 3 weeks with each other. Many of us have also socialized outside class like at the “Stammtisch” (Get together) last Thursday. This was a really nice time and it helped me really see peeps as “real people” rather than just classmates. Both then and today, I found many similarities between our cultures. For example, to say “Hello” in the UK and most western countries… we shake hands for formal situations and hug with friends in greeting.

Formal greeting in "Western" countries

In countries with Latin-based languages like Italian, Spanish & Portuguese, they are much more informal and also include kisses. I find both the people and temperature are very warm, friendly and open. A little like in Africa where I originally come from.

Warm Latin Greetings ;-)

However, in Eastern or Asian countries, they are a little more traditional and value showing respect and so bow to one another:

Showing respect the Easter / Asian way!!

They do this both in Pakistan & Japan as I learnt on Saturday at the Japanese course. I think I like this tradition. Sometimes, we can lose the honour of formality when we are regularly informal.

In the course today, we read out loud more and were able to ask questions which helped increase our vocabulary. I enjoyed this and I decided to take my time more to get the pronunciation right. My husband makes sure of this and I found it really helps. I really don’t want to be learning words wrong as it would be very difficult to unlearn.

As you all probably know now, my husband is German and is very keen on being specific. This is something Germans are known internationally for and today we learnt how to tell the time. Needless to say, Germans are very careful to state the exact time even to the point of saying “14 minutes past half past 2” (vierzehn minuten nach halb drei) – No, I didn’t get that wrong, half PAST in English is Half TO the NEXT Hour in German. Germany is obviously very keen on being early.

As an African at heart, this is a problem sometimes for me and my husband getting places on time but I have found the benefits are great when you know that the bus is pretty much ALWAYS running to schedule or will even get you somewhere early. My friends in England will be pleased to know that I am actually on time more often than not now. I’m not quite sure if I could translate this to England but I guess we should try it and see.

Okay, so time for random thought. We found out today that even though time is said very specifically using the 24-hour clock usally, you can also say “shortly before…2pm” i.e. kurz vor zwei. You can even say this for anything up to 14 minutes before. REALLY?? I personally was very shocked at this because let’s be honest, 14 minutes is not short. A lot can happen in 14 minutes. Is this just me or does anyone else agree? Surely, 5 minutes either side of the hour is “kurz”. My husband begs to differ.

Kurz nach drei or Shortly past 3 surely?

Hallo, ist alles okay?

Hatten Sie ein gutes Wochenende? (Did you have a good weekend?) I do hope so.

Mine was good even though my home country are now out of the Euro 2012 Football Championship. Let’s just say – this penalty shoot-out really isn’t our thing but maybe it’s a good thing… for my marriage that is. My husband and I may have had a bit of a falling out if our respective countries had played each other on Thursday, me thinks. Hurrah… my marriage is safe! (hehehe).

We actually spent our weekend on a Japanese cooking course – courtesy of my husband’s company. The course was in the north of the city at another “language” school. There were about 8 of us so very informal and relaxed. The first half was learning about the language and culture. The second half, we got to make sushi and Tempura and see how to cook Japan’s famous Miso soup.

Proud sushi maker!!

This was really fun and interesting. Japan has really preserved a lot of their traditional culture and still kept up to date with the West too. However, I really think I have enough new languages and customs running around my head, which is why I can only remember “Arigatoo goza i masu”. I think this means “Thank You very much.” Good one to remember I think.

In my Deutsch course today we learnt a number of new words describing what is in our homes and room names. My favourite is the kitchen as I love cooking and knew a lot of the words already;-)We learnt that many of the names of furniture are actually combined words – so this is where the wonderful “UBER” long words that German is famous for starts, I see.

We all got our tests back and did okay again. We did another one today too on country names, directions and past tense. We were told that we would be getting regular tests every Monday and Thursday from now on… “but this is nothing to worry about” says our teacher…(Nothing to worry about????) Let’s just say my flat is now covered in Post-it notes – on all the remaining surfaces my friends didn’t cover the first time round.

Me not worrying while trying to cook...

Ciao for now…

oooh… as usual, random thought. We learnt today how to say we have moved  house to. I wonder how long it would take me to persuade my course mate (the one with the really nice house with the river at the end of the garden) to move out of her place so then we can move in…hmmm?!!??!!?

I’m not sure if anyone remembers this but in England there used to be an old TV show hosted by Lloyd Grossman (who now hosts Masterchef, I think) called “Who lives in a house like this?” You got to see small parts of a famous person’s home and players had to guess who it belonged to from the clues. Viewers, almost never got it right but many of the players on the show did. Today, I feel like we were on that show! However, the real issue would’ve have been distinguishing each person’s home.

It was really funny that many of my class (see picture below) lived in apartments in Munich (which is very common here) of which many were described as: big (Gross), light or bright (hell), and with small and dark bathrooms (mit klein und dunkel Badezimmer). I guess that is the price you pay for living in the city…. all except one person in our class. I wonder if you can guess who from the picture below?

My class holding up names of their countries

This person had everything “big” in their apartment and “schoen” (beautiful). They even has a river at the end of their garden where you can go swimming.  They have lived in Munich for a year now so it seems had time to search out a “gem” as we call it in England. In the lesson today, we learnt to how to describe our homes and say things belonged to us or someone else. Let’s just say, today, I wish I could say that the home by the river was mine ;-)

In the picture, my class are all holding up the countries they come from. From left to right, they are from:

Italy, Italy, USA, Sweden / Poland, Venezuela, Germany, Pakistan, Portugal & Norway. Our teacher is Deutsch and unfortunately, Mr Lybia has decided the course really isn’t for him and won’t be returning. It is a shame because I was really looking forward to finding out more about his culture (yes, that’s right… somewhere I haven’t been ;-0).

However, tonight, I do get to find out about other cultures in a more sociable environment. The school has arranged an opportunity for students to meet for dinner in a Mexican restaurant. I am really looking forward to this and practising my speaking. Today, we got to practice “ch” sound again and honestly, I really thought I’d got it before but really hadn’t. Ahh… practice, practice, praktisch!

Have a good weekend everyone and do enjoy the good weather and football. It should be good!!!

Today, we continued to learn the different countries and their languages and locations. We found out that Germany has at least 9 different neighbouring countries. Munich is actually like a melting pot of nationalities with people from all over the world. You can tell just from all the peeps at DeutschAkademie, all the English signs everywhere and in the architecture around the city too. Apparently one of the monarchs back in the day, married into the Greek ruling class and so there are many greek mythological statues around the place. You can see many of them at Schloss Nymphenburg.

It seems like things are coming together too with the language lessons too. Yesterday, we got our results back from the test and I did quite well with only a few silly mistakes (like forgetting full-stops – yeah, they do have that here too). Many of us in the class did well too and so we are all feeling more confident now. Notably, our comprehension is growing and our teacher announced that we therefore need another test – tomorrow!!! We are already on Unit 4 so will be doing another on Monday as well. I guess we are really away now.

In light of this we were enlightened with “past tense” and how to apply possession to an item. Welcome to “Akkusativ & Praeteritum”. Yes, it has begun, the wonderful world of German Grammar.

Behold German Grammatik!!!!

We all seemed to be picking it up quite well but then our teacher advised that the Akkusativ is only for certain verbs and changes only masculine bestimmt & unbestimmt Artikel word endings. OH MY WORD!!!! Can it be that I am actually getting the hang of this. Check out that lingo?!!??? I guess the test will tell next week… or maybe sooner. Tomorrow night many of us are getting together with other international students for dinner in a Tapas bar. It should be quite fun – so watch this space!!!!