Communication (September 21, 2011)

Well, I survived Skye being gone for 3 days! It actually wasn't so bad. I was ridiculously lazy and turned to haribos to keep me company, but other than that, it was ok! I got a lot of German studying done, did 4 loads of laundry which was interesting, so the time went pretty fast. It didn't sound like I missed out on a whole lot, Skye said it was pretty boring.

Many of you saw my facebook status in which I mentioned I am moving onto the second phase of culture shock. From the honeymoon phase to the negotiation phase. (see the stages here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_shock) The negotiation phase mentions some frustration with the language. I am pretty burnt out from hearing people all around me all the time speaking, but not knowing what they're saying. Sure, I can survive on English-- if I were to never learn German, I could still get around just fine. But do you realize how much you miss out on not knowing the language? It's so lonely feeling. Just because people CAN speak English doesn't mean they do it regularly. But on the brighter side of this I have noticed a HUGE difference in my understanding. It's really only small things and when I tell you, you'll all think I'm a giant dork, but these small things have made me so happy and made me more confident. I think I mentioned it a little bit in my last blog.

So before when someone spoke to me (which actually happened a lot, random people came up to me and started talking at least once a day), I would just immediately get nervous and interrupt them and tell them "I don't speak German, I'm sorry!" But it started at the laundromat. I was waiting for my clothes in the washer and a guy was asking me about the something, well, I immediately told him I don't speak German. Meanwhile, I was working on my German homework! So I thought to myself, I should have answered in German that I don't speak much German. "Ich spreche kaum deutsch" I speak very little German. But I didn't. However, I did get up and try to help him and told him it was 3 euros and not 2.50 which is why it wasn't working. I told him with some exaggerated body language and english, and he was very thankful. So that made me not so nervous, because it was in English. Then today two things happened that I found very significant, but like I said, they are such small things, so you may not be impressed! This morning on the way to school a lady stopped me and was asking for directions. I looked at her and started to say my usual, "I don't speak German" but just then I recognized a few words and just listened to her and tried to hear as much as I could. Straße! That's an easy one, street! So, then she had a map, and I knew for sure she was asking directions, and I know a little bit of my neighborhood, so I didn't actually speak to her, she did all the talking, but I understood her and confirmed her questions and pointed to the direction she needed to go. So to me that was exciting! I didn't freak out, and I knew basically what she was saying! Then after school today I stopped by the store. Usually I go to little Rewe (pronounced reeva) but today I went to big Rewe. This is bizarre, they are the same store, but one is big, like a normal sized grocery store, and the other is very small, and they are right across the street from each other....ok? Weird! Also, prices are different. So that makes no sense to me. But whatever. So at little Rewe the brötchen is self serve (most of you probably know this but there are bakeries EVERYWHERE in Germany, and people just buy their bread fresh every day, it's quite lovely! So Skye and I have been eating brie and brötchen every day for lunch) but at big Rewe you have to order it. Ordering anything whatsoever has terrified me, and I haven't done it once since I got here. I just make Skye do that. But I didn't feel like crossing the street to go to little Rewe and going in and standing in line again and all that. That may sound lazy of me, but the streets are SO annoying to cross here! The lights take forever! So I went ahead and ordered my brötchen from the lady!!!! I didn't even care, and I wasn't even scared! I simply told her "drei brötchen bitte" nothing complicated, but it still made me happy!

So I guess this immersion thing is working! Slowly but surely! Today I'm going to leave you with a funny conversation I had with a Japanese classmate. First, let me describe him a bit. He is a mix between goth and hipster, he has a horrible haircut in which his giant side bang is always in his face and he's constantly moving it to the side. He speaks ok English, and his German better than some in the classroom, but not great. His voice isn't very deep at all. He is very nice, but pretty quirky. This particular day, which happened to be the day of our first test, he came in about 30 minutes late, and missed the listening part of the test (which by the way the teacher DID NOT let him make up! Which I thought was awesome!!! My school in Madison caters to slackers and it gets old). We were partnered up and when we finished writing our telephone conversation he commented on my red eye. I have ridiculous allergies, and my eyes have been bothering me lately. So now you know the background information and I will leave you with this humorous conversation per Chara's request. Unfortunately I am a bad person and do not know his name. :(

kid: Your eye is red.
me: Oh, yeah, it's been bothering me today
*kid gives me a weird look
*weird pause
kid: it is red
me: yeah, it's probably just allergies
kid: you are allergic when you come to this classroom?
me: YES THAT'S IT I'm allergic to this class!!! (no just kidding I didn't say that)
me: no I just have allergies all the time.
kid: oh. you are allergic?
me: It's probably the leaves starting to fall
kid: Leaf?
me: (using exaggerated body language) yeah, outside, the leaves are falling off the trees and staying on the ground.
kid: OHHH BLESS YOU HEART!