Language Learning

Took a week off language studies after the trip... because the trip really wore me out. You know, actual training for my job is like, hard and brain-power sucking. Then coming back from a trip is still all this laundry, chores, catchup at work, etc. etc.

Okay, so my week in Berlin, what did I learn?

• The tourist areas are full of tourists. I walked up to many people to ask something (ex: can I cross the street here?) only for the response to be "I only speak English", be it an American, a Dutch/Netherlands couple, or Italian.

• City centers, subways are filled with German speakers who will respond with German. They're busy and often don't want a conversation, but they can answer one or two quick questions. Due to their impatience, they'll take one question in German and immediately switch to English (something in my accent must have reliably told them I'm American/English speaker).

• There were still situations where I was forced to use 100% German and I think it improved my language skills. Immigrant communities, such as the Turks who make all the Döhner Kabobs, they speak Turkish first, German 2nd, and don't really have the room for English. Same thing with the massage I got: Thailand immigrant, who also speaks German, but very broken English. There's also a substantial number of "older folks" who speak German only (but usually have a spouse who speaks English, or a younger person nearby, like an employee, who they'll redirect you for English).

• The actual computer training was all in English. I accidentally started to one of the staff in charge of the Hotel as I was looking for anyone who spoke German (she was sitting in the dining area, so I assumed she was part of the training at first, but she was actually in charge of organizing / watching over the conference as Hotel Staff). My German isn't at the conversational level yet though so we mostly talked in English after trying a few lines in German.

I did pickup a B1 textbook in German

So solid progress, but now I need to think about my push to B1. I'd like to finish Grammatik aktiv to get me a grammatical basis (mostly because I'm already half-way through Grammatik aktiv, but also because grammar is a good foundation for new stuff). That would leave mostly the vocabulary / practice when I get to the coursebook.

I'll probably start reading more for variety as well. I'll need to fill up my vocabulary banks / Anki again.