I was a little embarrassed to tell people I was taking German courses. Not because I think language courses are embarrassing. Quite the opposite. I think they are incredibly valuable. I was embarrassed because it has taken me so long to get there.
After over a decade in Berlin, I finally took my first German language course.
It’s not that I couldn’t speak German at all. I’d have been in serious trouble if I couldn’t manage a trip to the grocery store or KiTa chitchat. My vocabulary and comprehension are well beyond my German skill level. But without having studied grammar, my speaking was seriously affected. I could get my meaning across, but like a fairly slow child. With my Berlin-born daughter entering Erster Klasse (1st grade) and no move out of Germany at the horizon, it was well past time to get my language skills together. And as my German instructor said, “Besser spät als nie” (Better late than never).
I just finished my first course and am excited to move on to the next levels. Before I do that I thought I would share a little summary of the class and what other language learners – either new to Germany or new to the language – might expect.
This is a German elementary classroom, but I felt like a school kid learning German for the first time PHOTO: Erin Porter
Why Start Now
As I said, learning German had been overdue. So what finally tipped me over the edge? Besides the pressing need of wanting to understand the world and people around me better, there was the knowledge that my Berlin-born kids were growing up and needed me to function better in this country of theirs. Though my daughter has only lived in Germany, spent 6 years in a German-speaking KiTa, we are all English-speaking at home and she still prefers English. This has meant elements of her German have lagged like pronunciation and vocabulary. She just isn’t as comfortable as her purely German-speaking peers. This is common in dual speaking (or more) kids. There are others in her class who speak Ukrainian, Spanish, Polish and some of them have also had a delay. They will be fine, but I feel guilty for my part in her English bubble.
The other element is opportunity. At my startup, we are given a learning budget to spend on anything that will make us more content and competent and I knew that language classes were the first thing I would tackle with that fund. The other huge job perk that allowed me to accomplish this is being able to work from home and the flexible hours my job offers. I frequently get to work earlier than my colleagues once the kids are off to school, take a break in early afternoon to pick them up and spend time with them, then work later in the night once they are in bed. It allows me to be a part of our family life and still an important contributing member of my company’s team. It can also be exhausting so even with these advantages it took me a year and a half to pick a langue course and get started. But with the option to move things around in my work and personal life I could make it happen.
The German Language Class
Even with this flexibility, I knew I couldn’t handle anything intensive. Intensive language courses typically occur 5 days a week and are the best way to learn a language fast. But I didn’t need fast and knew I couldn’t commit that kind of time with my full-time workload and wanting to be a functioning human being. I also did not want to sacrifice my weekends or evenings and family time. This left my choice of courses more limited.
Eventually I found a morning course from 8 to 11am. Perfect! Get my language class done and be ready for my actual work the rest of the day. My confirmation of the class came back saying there weren’t enough participants for that course and I was enrolled in the 11:42-2:45 if I wanted it. Ok – rolling with the changes I took a big breath and committed. In a whirlwind, I paid and finished the paperwork on a Friday and started the class on Monday. I didn’t even have time for my book to be delivered in time. After waiting to get started for years, I just wanted to get going. (Plus I wanted to fit this course in before I was on vacation in August – hello, as I write this from beautiful Croatia!).
A note about classes and availability: It stands to reason that courses in summer have much scarcer attendance as people are traveling or just enjoying summer activities. It is easy to find a spot, but classes are frequently combined or canceled so be aware. This is also a great time if you like small class sizes. See the next section….
Who was in my German Class?
I was definitely the outlier in the group. Everyone else was fairly new to Germany, trying to get a handle on their new country through mastering its tongue. The cast of characters:
- The Teacher – An experienced and lively character who kept the conversation flowing with her spirited remarks, sharing grammar and vocab along with cultural insights. Though instruction was all in German, she also spoke English and Spanish and occasionally broke things down in those languages when we truly weren’t getting it or needed to be sure we understood scheduling, etc. Based in Bremen, she cheerfully broke down the mentality of Northerners and those in the South, East, and West, and us weirdos stuck somewhere in between in Berlin.
- The Argentinian – Only in Germany for a few months due to her husband’s relocation, she also had a young son. She is based in Mannheim, a quick study and eager to learn and try out her skills making jokes, although always late to class which we all took with good humor. Experienced as an illustrator, she was learning German before the job hunt.
- The Brazilian – Another mom in the course, she was in Göttingen for her husband’s job as a university professor. They were actually spending time in Portugal during the course (never quite got the full story on why that was happening) and though she always seemed prepared she was losing interest as their time in Germany was waning.
- The Russian – By far the youngest in our class, this 17-year-old had only taken one course but had a remarkable handle on German grammar. Her pronunciation however, was another thing as she was still living at home with her family in Russia. She was learning German so she could be more prepared when visiting her sister studying in Germany.
- The Mexican – Still based in Mexico, she was a young doctor in the Yucatan. She regularly got up at 5 am to join our class! Can’t knock that commitment. She battled internet connectivity issues and having near no knowledge of German in practice.
- The Iranian – Based in Cologne, she was quiet at first but gained confidence as we went along. We learned that she didn’t speak English, so the teacher’s further explanations didn’t help. It was all German for her. We also found out that their first Kölner Karneval they went out on the street like any other day to find the whole city had gone mad. What a surprise!
As you can see, a wide variety of interests and experience. Also, quite interesting that we were all women. We were promised a man, but he never showed. I really appreciated my group and felt very fond of all of them by the end, particularly the teacher. I will be joining her next course in September,.
What We Learned in German Class
Taking German language out into the real world PHOTO: Anon
So, what did we actually learn in this class? I still struggle to speak well. My vocab is much better and I am starting to know why some things “sound right”, but I am at the stage where I know whatever I am trying to say – I am doing it wrong. Just gotta keep practicing and memorizing.
We studied out of the Menschen series which you can find online. I bought the book so I would have the resource to make notes on and refer back to. We covered topics from making appointments, to giving directions, to body parts, to understanding signage (above) to clothing and weather. It is actually amazing what you can go over in 10 weeks with class 2 times a week!
I hope with this post I inspire anyone else who feels it was too late to learn. I am disappointed I took so long to get started, but proud I finally took this first step.
Hello, My wife and I are comfortably retired long time U.S. residents planning to move to Germany. We are healthy, have sufficient income, and will buy insurance, and do not plan to work. After doing a great deal of research on specific visas and permits, we are still trying to determine a way to establish (longer than 90 days) residence. Anyone out ther have some good advice as to how we might go about this?
Thanks,
LynMyers@hotmail.com