Bogenhofen: Student Life

    We all know the real reason I came to Austria was to travel. Learning German was just a good excuse to come. Regardless, learning the language still affects my GPA so I try my best. So how is it going? Honestly... I'm not really sure. Last year I had to study Koine Greek for my major and I absolutely loved it. It was my favorite class and I loved translating passages into English. I loved it so much that I kept it up all summer. And I'll admit, the language came quite naturally to me. So I assumed learning German would be a similar situation.

   I was wrong. Currently, there's really nothing about the German language I enjoy. Greek was a very orderly and logical language, German is not. None of the rules seem to follow any patterns and concepts. For example, the Dative and Accusative Cases, which made perfect sense in Greek, make no sense in German. I really think a lot of it has to do with the way we are being taught. We follow this textbook that doesn't actually teach much grammar. It kind of just throws you into the deep end and expects you to pick things up as you go. So, even though I'm halfway through A2 I still feel like I'm missing a lot of the basics I need to comprehend the language. I still don't really know what word order to use in a regular sentence and I've never been taught what any of the prepositions are so I often lose the meaning of very basic sentences. Overall, I've found this whole thing to be a very frustrating process. 

   On top of that, we spend so much time memorizing the articles and plurals of different words for our weekly tests that I forget (or simply don't have time) to actually memorize what the words mean, so my vocabulary is small. 

   People keep telling me I need to immerse myself in the language more, but I wish they'd try having a conversation with someone in German before they would say that. You get three words in before the other person grows impatient and finishes your sentence for you or starts talking to you in English. Also, if you sit down at a table of German speakers they don't include you in their conversations at all, and at this point, I've kind of given up. I've actually grown more insecure with my German than when I first arrived and I no longer have a desire to try. 

   All of this is very frustrating because I do want to know the language, and I do want to be able to converse easily, but every time I try it's just so discouraging. I feel like no one wants to take the time to talk to me, and I freeze up in front of the teachers so that I sound like a total idiot. Many of my friends can listen to German and start picking up phrases and word order, but I guess my brain doesn't really work that way because I find it almost useless to try listening to German conversations. Technically, I understand the language. I get high marks on every test and assignment, and I can even write speeches and very simple papers in German, but my brain just needs a lot of time to process it, so listening and speaking are extremely difficult for me. 

   The best practice I get is when I go into town. No one knows I am American so they don't try to make it easy for me. I'm forced to speak with them in German and I do quite well, especially because we speak about practical matters like how much a shampoo bottle costs, or where the closest bakery is instead of them trying to ask me how I felt about the sermon (which I didn't understand to begin with). My German Literature teacher doesn't speak any English and I also find it easier to talk to her than my other teachers. 

   That is not to say that I don't know any German at all. When I got here, I couldn't understand a thing. Now I can navigate the world without feeling completely out of my depth and I can usually pick up enough context clues to understand most conversations, but I'm nowhere near as comfortable with it as I would like to be. I guess I just need to give myself a little more grace. After all, with Greek, I only ever had to learn how to read. With German, I must listen, speak, read, and write and it is certainly not as static in vocabulary and theme. 

Also ich glaube, dass mein Deutch ist nicht so schlecht. Ich can viele Worte und Idee verstehen. Gibt es noch Zeit zum lernen. :) 

  I'm really trying not to lose my motivation, but it's been hard these last couple of weeks. Since we almost exclusively do language classes I feel quite cramped. It's a lot of repetitive exercises and very little output of ideas and thoughts and I don't really get to learn new things. So for me, it's not very stimulating. But right now I'm doing an ancient art history class online and that is really bringing me a lot of joy. :) 

   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bogenhofen: Brot und Käse

Image
   I have a couple trips to blog about, but I also wanted to talk a little bit about what life is like here, and some of the struggles I have run into. I titled this blog "Brot und Käse" because, for the last month, my diet has consisted of a very limited selection of dry bread, cheese, and dietary torture. I think the Europeans may be stuck in the Middle Ages. Not only does their diet consist of peasant food, but they have a plague mentality and many of them think having the window open and letting fresh air in at night makes them sick, which has increased my suffering tenfold. Similarly, they avoid Americans like the plague even though we hail from one of the few places that never contracted this disease.     All jokes aside, there have been some major cultural shocks. The foremost being the food. Germans eat bread with cheese and butter for breakfast, supper, and sometimes lunch. Since I arrived I have had very little protein, sodium, starch, or legumes. Howe...
Read more

Salzburg: These Are A Few of My Favorite Things

Image
     Forenote: Sorry if this post is a little messy or has some grammar mistakes. Not sure what it is but I've lost my writing mojo. 😖    We finally made it off campus. Salzburg was the kind of city that felt old; as if it had never stepped foot into the modern era. The tall mint green, banana cream yellow, and baby blue houses were packed tightly in the valley, the snowcapped peaks rising around them, and steep cliffs pushing them so close to the river it seemed they might fall in. Church spires rose to the height of the cliffsides, and standing like a gaudy sentry above it all, was a white castle with the Austrian flag fluttering in the afternoon breeze.      I have dreamt about seeing Europe for many years, and this was what I meant. Salzburg is what I had always imagined. It was the perfect city to call my first. It was a hodgepodge of different histories, eras, and architectural/art styles, yet there was something synonymous and pleasing abo...
Read more

Vienna... a Roman city???

Image
    I will start by talking about my favorite thing; archaeology. You may want to skip this post if you don't want a history lesson. :D Thankfully for me, Vienna was full of grave goods and artifacts plucked from neighboring countries such as Greece and Italy, as well as a few from far-off countries like Turkey and Egypt. Besides the fact that the Viennese have impressive Greco-Roman and Egyptological collections, I was also shocked to learn that Vienna started out as a Roman city.     In 16-15 BC, the Romans occupied the foothills of the Alps under the direction of Emperor Tiberius, the emperor during Jesus' ministry. Later, the Celtic town of Vindobona, which would later become Vienna, was occupied by the Romans and became a strategic garrison. Gradually, the population expanded because of the town's important position on the Danube River which made it the base for the Roman fleet. Because of its increasing importance, it received the Roman city charter which ...
Read more