I don’t know how people do it.
One of the first things that was most exciting to me when I landed back in Germany last week was that I could understand things again.
You know, my relationship with German hasn’t been an easy one. Whether it was breaking down in tears in German class at uni in Calgary when we had to learn irregular past-tense verbs (okay, I may have been a little bit hungover from seven-dollar triples the night before), or seriously considering throwing my computer at the wall whilst trying to do some homework, it hasn’t always been rosy.
In fact, I still get frustrated often, mostly (still) due to the gender issue.
But, you know, five years in, I think German and I are doing pretty good. I’ll never be a native speaker, but hey… If I was a native speaker, well… You wouldn’t want anything to do with my English. Give and take, you know.
What I don’t understand are the people who have lived in Germany for years and years without speaking the language. How do these people survive?? I have only been in Finland for about a grand total of six weeks of my life and it’s been enough for me to throw my hands up in the air and register for Finnish next semester at uni.
I mean, it’s nice that English is a pretty universal language and you can go pretty much anywhere with it, but it’s so UNCOMFORTABLE not knowing what’s going on around you.
How do these people stand it?
So, moral of the story, point one in my reconciliation experience is that if nothing else, it’s a lot more comfortable being somewhere where you know what’s going on.
Thank you, irregular past-tense verbs, for not giving up on me when I wanted to give up on you. <3
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