Thursday 4 March 2010

How interesting. For the first time EVER tonight, I would actually rather have been speaking German than English. I went to an English-speaking meeting in a local restaurant; generally a good excuse to relax and forget about speaking a foreign language, and to meet new people. Well I don't know if it was because many of the participants were German, looking to improve their English (and therefore I slip into teaching mode, which isn't half as relaxed as gossiping mode), or perhaps because I've reached a particular point in my assimilation of the German language, but I REALLY wanted to slither into German at many points in the evening. I have never before felt that particular compulsion, and found it fascinating.

It helps perhaps that I am starting to feel a lot more confident when conversing in German. I still get stuck a lot, and run out of steam mid-sentence, and choose words that make people giggle behind their hands, but yesterday evening I attended and sang at an event for some German friends of mine, and afterwards, amidst generous amounts of some VERY nice Sekt (German champagne sort of stuff; was rather snobby about it before tasting this Kupferberg...), I managed to discuss all the following, and in an environment where everyone else was chucking Sekt down their gullets too, so there was considerable background noise:

- spirituality (with the Pfarrerin (lady preacher))

- stonemasonry in the 15th/16th century (with a young photographer)

- Gaudi's architecture and its meaning for modernism (with a behatted actor)

- getting stopped by the police for drinking (with a drunk)

Maybe it's just that I'm so proud of myself for finally managing to move past the basics, but I really felt a glow when on my way home that wasn't entirely attributable to the fizz, and tonight confirmed that, at least for the moment, I don't NEED English as a refuge from German. It feels GOOD!

1 comment:

  1. This post made me smile and laugh!!!

    I know these feelings...! Tonight I was at a cafe with some friends and the guy who owns the place...he told me his mom gave him a recipe for vegetarian bean soup. I THOUGHT I asked 'is your mom a vegetarian' but apparently I asked 'is your mom vegetarian' and immediately the girl at the next table said 'yes, she's made of tofu'...LOL!

    AAAHHHHHHHHHH! This language makes for such great adventures!

    Lots more fun to you!!!

    Rebecca

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