I’ve bitten the bullet.
Its time I learn German. I’ve spent the last four months awkwardly asking “Do you speak English?” every time I have to interact with anyone. It makes me feel guilty and lazy. I’ve moved to Switzerland with no German! What was I thinking?
Anyway, it really came to my attention last night. I stopped into the supermarket on the way home from work and headed straight for the veg section, the onions, garlic and cabbage section to be a little more precise. I got what I needed and nodded cordially to the little old lady (lol) who was hovering nearby.
I headed on to get some milk and bread and then returned past the veg section to the checkout. The little old lady was still hovering and she beckoned me over.
lol : German German German, hands me a bag, German, points with her finger.
me : I’m sorry, I don’t speak German?? (shrug and smile).
lol : Oh
She turned round and asked the girl next to her. It seems she wanted me to get the perfect cabbage that was out of reach on the shelf. I felt a little useless. So next week I start my intensive conversational German course. Two, one and a half hour classes for six weeks. By March I’ll be “sprachening” like the best of them.
I mean, how hard can it be?
6 responses so far ↓
Pamela // January 13, 2007 at 11:41 am |
Good luck with German, hope you fair better than us.
We moved here with no knowledge of German and spoke French to survive for the first few months.
Six years later although we both speak German of a sort I am ashamed to admit that neither of us are by any means fluent.
Anonymous // January 15, 2007 at 1:46 pm |
If it makes you feel any better, I’m giving it a go too with Amazon’s finest teach yourself books. This should be good for a laugh
yinyogi // January 15, 2007 at 3:27 pm |
Welcome back to blogland!
I was in Austria skiing and attempting to have a liason with a German ski instructor. Him crap english, me crap German. Needless to say it was a bit frustrating! Many cross-purpose conversations! But then again who needs to talk
andreas // January 18, 2007 at 12:12 pm |
A while back an English lady in our office used this book http://www.books.ch/shop/action/productDetails?aUrl=90007790&artiId=4519269
)…
and I was flabbergasted how quickly she caught on to what we were *really* saying (we swear a lot in SwissGerman
sunset84 // November 9, 2008 at 8:09 pm |
Viel Glück!
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