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.

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.

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

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.