The F word and where I am with it

It’s the aim of most, if not all, linguists to become fluent in a foreign language. What exactly is it though, to ‘be fluent’ in a language?

Wikipedia defines it as:
“Language fluency is used informally to denote broadly a high level of language proficiency, most typically foreign language or another learned language, and more narrowly to denote fluid language use, as opposed to slow, halting use.”

It then speaks of ‘proficiency’, which is then broken down into four key areas:

• Reading: the ability to easily read and understand texts written in the language;
• Writing: the ability to formulate written texts in the language;
• Comprehension: the ability to follow and understand speech in the language;
• Speaking: the ability to produce speech in the language and be understood by its speakers.

If you then couple it up with this nice paragraph that asks a few searching questions to you, as a language learner, from About.com, you can then begin to get a nice little overview as to where you strengths and weaknesses lie. It can also give you a few goals and things to work on.

“Do you feel comfortable speaking the language? Can you communicate easily with native speakers? Can you read newspapers, listen to the radio, and watch tv? Are you able to understand the gist of the language as it is spoken and written, even if you don’t know every single word? Can you understand native speakers from different regions? The more fluent you are, the more of these questions you can answer “yes” to.”

For me, the answers to most of these questions – except perhaps ‘Can you understand native speakers from different regions?’ – is ‘yes’. What I realised the other day, after around 9 days away from German, is how quickly you slot back into it – in restaurants, on TV, in newspapers – it all just seems to be understandable now. The gist is what counts and that’s what I’m getting in most cases.

There’s also the further question of ‘Do you think in a foreign language?’ My answer: At times. It’s not got to the point where I think of everything in German when I’m out and about – but it definitely is getting there.

What the point of this is, is that while I’ve had around six to seven years of ‘school teaching’ of German, while that has no doubt got the structure of it all in my head and has given me some vocabulary, the real groundbreaking work has been occuring since July. It’s documented in this blog in fact – Bremen and Thüringen!
For me (and everyone’s different), the key turning point was just being able to be living and breathing the language on a daily basis. In Bremen, something just clicked after a couple of weeks and the cases and passive, which I’d previously loathed, just fell into place.

Many previous Language Assistants have said that the real rewarding thing about the year abroad is the chance to improve your language skills at a vast rate of knots. I’m pleased to say that now, after months of waiting, it seems to be finally happening to me.

DaF: Society’s useless objects; German improvement

I had a great time today, actually speaking and learning German constructively. I realised, after a very short amount of time, that I’d missed the class over the last month. It also made me realise, just how much my German has actually improved since I’ve been here – the fluency (by which I mean, not stopping halfway through a sentence due to the frustration of not being able to properly say something) has come to me, much like a glove and hand go together.

When I now speak German, I find that I don’t have to really think about it – not that much, at least, which is a great improvement as to how it was in Bremen, for example. The German that I’ve no-doubt unconsciously internalised over the last five months of being here (scary to think that, really), use daily now while chatting to people, read in books and newspapers is all coming out into me being pretty confident in that I can handle most situations that are thrown at me. It’s good to say that I, myself, feel as though I’m finally getting on top of the language.

Today, we were talking about various things that society has, that it simply doesn’t need. A bell that can be used for warning pedestrians of your approach when on skates, for example, or how about a device that cuts the shells of eggs perfectly?
Before the pointless items were revealed to us though, we had a fair bit of fun making up ideas of what they could be, though. How about a Jedi ring, whistle or a container for salt and pepper that could fit on your finger? For the device that cuts the egg shells – what about a money note holder, or cigarette holder? These, in our opinion, were much more fun than what the devices were actually used for – but so is life. I still think we should patent some of our ideas though – they’re much more creative!

I also learnt a couple of new words today that particularly stand out. One, courtesy of the lesson: ‘Streichholzschächtelchen’ (little box of matches) which is great fun to say, and also the following that I saw on a drinks menu: ‘Abstürzenbeschleuniger’ – ‘Fall accelerator’, a.k.a. drinks that make you get drunk quicker. How good is that? And people say that German isn’t logical…

The Mulberry Bush, Slumdog Millionaire and challenging prepositions

I’d like to say ‘an easy week at school, this week’, as if it actually meant that. What I should now perhaps be saying is ‘a normal week at school, this week’ – ‘normal’, being me walking around and being in a more ‘passive’ role than some of my other LA colleagues. It’s become the status quo over the past month or two and I’m coming to rather enjoy it, truth be told.

Doris’ fifth grade class provided me with a little laugh first thing on Monday morning. Have you ever tried to listen to a child’s version of the ‘Mulberry Bush’, with the lyrics adapted to ‘This is way I wash my face, wash my face…’ and then try to translate it into German? It’s amusing to say the least and what’s clear, is that it really doesn’t work, either!
‘This is the way I brush my teeth early in the morning’, now becomes ‘Das ist die Art, wie ich meine Zähne putze, früh am morgen’, which just doesn’t work quite as well, does it?

Sabine’s class was redoing the alphabet again – they’re getting good at that now. No ‘I’s instead of ‘E’s or ‘E’s instead of ‘A’s. Encouraging signs there, for sure.

On Tuesday, I was treated to a showing of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, or to be more precise – the last 30 minutes of it, so it didn’t really make much sense to me. There were a few nail-biting questions of ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’, interspersed with a little bit of violence, flashbacks and then the jubilation of him winning. What the plot behind it was, I’m not entirely sure! It all linked in with their topic of globalisation though, so as long as it made sense to them, all is well in the world.

Sabine’s class were treated to an introduction to ‘The Big Challenge quiz – a European wide quiz, aimed at schools teaching English. On there, pupils can talk to one another, look at pictures, stories and such. It’s a nice little thing and takes place on May 12th this year, apparently. I don’t know why the UK doesn’t do something like this. Oh, yes I do. Lack of motivation for languages. How depressing.

While Bärbel’s class on Wednesday were learning the distinction between ‘some’ and ‘any’, which, while I hadn’t thought about in any great detail before, wasn’t particularly challenging – what was, was Doris’ class on Thursday. Her 11th graders to be precise – an extremely motivated group of English learners who always, always want to be pushed onto more difficult things.
Why was it so challenging? Well, firstly, they were looking at all the different ways of how the word ‘business’ is used. If you can’t think of any, look at these sentences:

• He’s away on business (Er ist geschäftliche Unterwegs)
• Let’s get down to business (Lass uns zu Sachen zugekommen)
• It’s none of your business, who I invite to the party (Es geht Ihnen nichts an, wen ich zur Party einlade)
• Some airlines will go out of business by the end of the summer (Einige Fluglinien werden wahrscheinlich diesen Sommer Pleite gehen)
• How’s business? (Wie läuft das Geschäft?)

That, I have to admit, wasn’t too taxing. What was though, was when they moved onto prepositions. I actually had to think for once – can you imagine it?! This was good and was exactly what I was there for – to help everybody (Doris included) about a couple of little nuances.

Think about these:
decline in / of (the steel industry) – to me ‘of’ sounds more natural. To the teaching manual, ‘in’ does.
in / on (a housing estate) – you can’t say ‘in’, which stumped Doris a bit, I think. To her (logically enough), you live ‘in’ a house, ‘in’ a housing estate. But, English being English – only ‘on’ really suffices.

Finally, in the fifth grade class, it was a simple case of helping them out with German to English sentence translation.

I had real fun today doing the prepositions – a lovely way to round off the week, by using a bit of brain power!

Video: Erfurt’s Altstadt – before and after the fall of the DDR

Here’s an interesting video that I’ve come across, documenting the state of the Altstadt of Erfurt before and after the fall of the DDR at the end of the 1980s.

Various photos showing the state of the Andreasviertel, which had to be knocked down and rebuilt, and centre of the city are displayed. There are also a couple of interviews – with a photographer, Dieter Demme, who documented it all, and the head of the Volkskundemuseum (Folklore museum).

Guide: How to survive a German winter

The temperature was a nice and brisk -7ºC today. The snow that wasn’t embedded into the pavement with salt in it, was slightly crunchy underfoot and, apart from getting used to not being able to feel the lower half of my face after a while, once wrapped up in a jumper, jacket, scarf, gloves, hat and walking boots (with extra socks), it was all rather pleasant. Odd to say that, I know.

This got me thinking: How do you survive a winter that’s markedly colder than you’re used to? This is it, then: A guide showing what the Germans do in the lead up to, and within the grips of, winter.

October

• Moan a little about the weather – the constant rain and small bit of wind that’s beginning to creep into the relatively warm temperatures
• At the same time, wear around twenty layers of thin clothing, underneath a huge winter jacket and hat, when the temperature drops a whisker below 5ºC. Wonder why you appear to sweat profusely.
• If you’re not like the people above, at least send your little toddler out in a bobble hat when the sun is shining and it’s relatively warm.

November

• When the temperature begins to fall into the minuses, discard your gloves and scarfs and walk around with a couple of thick jumpers on and a jacket, which you leave undone.
• Hole yourself up in many cafes, restaurants and drink copious amounts of soup, eat Bratwurst and be merry.
• When the snow falls in copious amounts at the end of the month, listen to what the news is calling ‘Snow chaos’ and set out on your journey anyway. This’ll usually lead to several accidents and delays along the way that’ll no-doubt impede you.

December / January

• Drink Glühwein in the Weihnachtsmarkt to stave off the cold, eat more Bratwurst or, if you want to get cool for some reason, drink beer.
• Begin to see sense and put on your scarf and gloves and become used to seeing tarmac as a white, rather than grey, object.
• Walk through a blizzard with a strong wind to go to the local restaurant / shop – you aren’t German unless you’ve done this!
• Get a slightly superior attitude, as you watch as London’s major airports close and suffer embarrassing delays due to the snow and ice. Sigh and watch as, a couple of days later, Frankfurt, Berlin and Munich airports have the same problem.
• You begin to accept train delays as a way of life during the winter months and are always pleasantly surprised when Deutsche Bahn, for all its usual efficiency, run a service or two on time.
• You begin to realise that, after having been in the depths of winter for some time, that you are getting used to temperatures of -5ºC or lower and that they don’t really bother you. You plod on through the snow and ice covered streets regardless. You get on with life, as you should.
• Schools generally remain open – the worst you’ll experience is a memo sent from the Ministry of Education saying, if the school sees fit, it can send pupils home early / cancel lessons. Despite the snow, invariably it doesn’t – the days and weeks go on as normal.
  

Christmas and New Year 2010

Christmas (UK)

I gave a little inward sigh of relief as I stepped out onto the platform at Frankfurt Airport, bang on time. Deutsche Bahn, in a nice turn of form compared with the recent weeks, had done me proud.

That was the relatively easy bit – the harder bit, the actual flight home, could prove to be more of a challenge. I’d heard of some horror stories from the other LAs who had been stuck in various queues in Frankfurt Airport – some for around six to seven hours or so – attempting to get on, change, or re-book flights home. For me though, I’m pleased to say that the flight home was delayed by a mere twenty minutes – nothing at all, in the grand scheme of things.

‘Well, well’, I thought, in my sleep deprived state, looking around at London as we flew over the top of it and down into City, ‘here I am again’. The next few days went by in a flash, involving a night walk around London (well, all of ten minutes from Liverpool St.) to see a Christmas carol concert at the Barbican Centre, Christmas Eve drinks, late morning present opening on Christmas Day with the traditional Christmas dinner late in the evening (and very nice it was indeed!), a meeting up with family friends and a curry, a meet up with one of my friends whom I hadn’t seen in months and all in the space of five days. Not bad at all, I thought!

All in all, it was nice to see the family again for an extended period of time, but ultimately everything was very ‘same-y’, basically exactly as it was when I’d left in August. Some say that stability is good – and ultimately of course, it is – but for me, what I’m looking for at the moment is a bit of adventure, which I’m finding in Germany and other areas of life too, at the current time. I, thus, wasn’t too sad to be flying off to colder climes on the 29th.

New Year (Czech Republic)

I got a lovely little shock to the system, after stepping on the plane at Stansted where it was +7°C and coming out of the terminal at Prague airport, where it was -7°C. The wind was biting and despite having someone hug me to keep warm, the weather was, quite frankly, bloody (below) freezing.
A nice relaxing evening followed though, with a lot of rather pleasant conversation and a feeling that this New Year would certainly be worth braving the cold temperatures for.

I then spent the entire day of the 30th being (willingly, I must admit) taken around a shopping centre, having bought a rather snappy looking suit for a function that I’ll be attending there in February – along with having a haircut. This was one of the more interesting haircuts of my life, as I had no idea at all, what was being said to me. Nor, for that matter, what was picked out for me! It’s rather disconcerting to have your hair being snipped while being told ‘Nothing’ is going on, all said with a mischevious smile! Still, it came out rather well – according to everyone who I’ve spoken to today who know me, it makes me look ‘younger’, and a bit more ‘stylish’ and such, so – that’s vindicated that decision rather nicely, I think! Granted, it wasn’t actually my decision in the first place, but I can pretend it was!

New Year’s Eve: Onto Kostelec nad Orlicí, a little town around three hours east of Prague, to meet a Czech family. Not just a random one, though – a certain one. This was, for me at least, rather nerve-wracking – for the first few minutes at least.

I was put at my ease though, by the grandmother saying “Herzlich Willkommen!” to me as soon as she opened the door of the very comfortable and friendly home. Someone who speaks only Czech, speaking to German to me, as she knows that’s how we both communicate. How cool and nice is that? Brought an instant smile to my face and relaxed me a fair bit! Introductions then followed rapidly: Mum, sister, dad. ‘Ahoj, ahoj, a ahoj.’ Little hug, little hug, handshake. Smile, relax. Job done for now.

After a rather nice and wet meeting with the family dog – he’s affectionate and likes giving his kisses! – it was off into the New Year’s gathering proper. ‘Where in the US are you from?’ I look. A family friend is asking me, in English. I smile ‘I’m from England, near London.’ ‘Ah!’ A glass of wine is poured, then another. Nicely tipsy, I was by the end of the night – punctuated by a lovely atmosphere of the whole room singing along with a nice chap who was playing the guitar. ‘Hallelujah’, a couple of other English songs and a vast array of (rather nice sounding, if incomphrensible) Czech songs were heard and I was rather enjoying myself.

New Year came – chats were had with the guitar man in English. A very nice guy he was, and, punctuated by a timely hug, it became all the better. Laughs were had, smiles were given and fun was on the menu. It just goes to show, how much fun you can have, even though – in general – you’re effectively a mute, as you can’t say much to anybody.

On New Year’s day, a couple of us gathered to watch a firework display in the market place, which was rather impressive for such a small place. I’ve taken a number of pretty decent photos of the fireworks – take a look at the ‘Christmas / New Year’ album on the ‘Photos’ page.

All in all, for various reasons, this little trip to the Czech Republic was over far too quickly. I had a fantastic time, seeing the ‘proper side’ of the country and experiencing family life and little nuances – nicknames, food and little gifts (including a beautiful book in English, about America, from the grandmother – how lovely is that, eh?!) and feeling generally settled and welcome in a family home in a country that I’ve got no real knowledge of – it certainly was an unforgetable few days, for sure.

The journey back to Weimar took – all in all – 9h 30m on paper. Kostelec to Prague was, while a little sad, good – it was on time and many laughs were had. Prague to Weimar, on the other hand was a bit of a punch in the face in terms of reality. There I was, realising that I had work to do tomorrow, a long journey ahead of me and I was heading back to Germany the ‘long way round’, by rail.

9h 30m seems like a long time, doesn’t it? It was, believe me. What made it even longer though, was the hour’s delay at Leipzig on the way back. This extra hour made the journey seem endless. I’d left Kostelec at 1300. When did I get into Weimar? That’s right, 2300. Still – was it worth it? Oh yes.

Had a good trip home? Check.
Had a good Christmas? Check.
Had a good trip to Prague? Check.
Had a cracking New Year? Check.
Had a good first day back? Relatively, yes.

All set for 2011, then? I am indeed. Bring it on.

End of term: How’s it all gone so far?

During the first few days of Bremen, I remember I was seriously considering heading home, as I really didn’t find being by myself in Germany without any sort of social contact. Then the course got underway and all was well – I stuck it out and got a lot out of it, in various ways.

Moving onto Weimar, I remember feeling the same. Not to the extent of wanting to leave, but the first few days took a little getting used to. ‘It’s here! My year abroad is happening now!’ Gradually, the anxiousness went away as I got more things (and German) under my belt, things ticked off my ‘To-do’ list and, like Bremen, once I got stuck in, it just became normality. That’s been the mantra of my life since the beginning of Bremen, I suppose: ‘Get stuck in and see where it takes you’, and has it taken me places? Oh yes, it has.

Now, looking back, August seems like years ago. So much has happened since then – the huge majority positive. New friends made in the LAs, lessons taught at school, German much (much) improved and my own self-knowledge and confidence – already reasonably good, I felt – has been bolstered too.

Lessons have been learnt: To be confident while teaching, to plan well, to have a back up plan. To just push yourself with the language – it’ll come sooner or later if you keep trying. People aren’t out to get you all the time – most likely, that’s just you being self-conscious!

Knowledge has been implanted: Realising that, despite its reputation and outward austerity, the German bereaucratic system is rather easy to get your head around, if you approach it with a friendly disposition (and a fondness of queueing and / or waiting). Seeing that people are genuinely interested in what you’re doing here and want to have a conversation about it. Generally speaking, Germans are cold on the outside, very warm on the inside. It’s cracking that outer shell that’s the tough bit. Knocking on the table is a sign of approval here – something I still can’t get used to!

All in all, this first term has been nothing but positive for me. The school’s supportive and the teachers are lovely, open and willing to work and accept me in their classrooms without so much as a blink. Germany is really beginning to grow on me and – once my batteries have been recharged over Christmas – I know that I won’t be able to wait to get back at it. The mere thought of coming back here, is making me feel happy as I’m writing this – because I know that I’m going to get a bit of time away from it in just a few hours. ‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder’, or so they say. Here, I can’t help but feel it’s true.

Nothing more to say really, except roll on 2011!

Last week: Christmas is coming

Let the last week begin!

On Monday, I had a full compliment of classes: Doris’ fifth grade class gave her a massive basket of chocolate from them and their parents. How nice is that, eh? It really shows the nice nature of the class and school in general, I think. Very rarely would you get that in the UK, I think.
The class was learning about furniture – they already knew a fair bit, such as ‘shelf’, ‘cupboard’ and they then learnt a bit more vocabulary by going through a text in their workbook. It was then a case of sentence correction, which I helped out with – just little things like ‘There is a chair in my room’, rather than ‘there are’.

In Sabine’s class, they began by sorting out the Secret Santa, which they all enjoyed (and didn’t skimp on the presents either!) and then it was a case of practising songs for their Christmas party, which would take place on Tuesday. ‘We wish you a merry Christmas’ and ‘Christmas is coming’ were performed, with Sabine accompanying them with a guitar. Much fun! I also gave them a quick little wordsearch that I’d prepared on Sunday as a time-filler, which – although easy – became competitive (as always!).

Tuesday rolled around and all I had was Sabine’s class – again, more songs – and then Martina’s music class. Martina wasn’t there, so I was left to my own devices sitting there, while listening to what they were doing. Besides from doing a test about different styles of jazz, they did a much more interesting thing: An improvised performance of Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, which was very well done indeed!
In between all this, Martina and Doris gave me a bag with three large-ish presents in them, with a thank you attached. I couldn’t keep the smile off my face – I was touched, to say the least! What’s in them, I’ll find out on Christmas Day!
After the music lesson, I popped into Sabine’s class to see how the party was getting on – ‘Well’, was what I thought! The class were showing off their musical talents and did many rousing and professional sounding – it must be said – performances on flutes, violins, pianos and even an accordion! Great stuff!

Wednesday came and I walked out of the front door, to discover that the pavements were slick with ice. This meant that, despite me leaving half an hour early, I still came into school ten minutes late. During this time I managed to have a couple of slides and fell over once, which – despite bloody hurting – didn’t do me any injury except a miniscule cut on my finger.
For the lesson itself, Bärbel’s class were talking about Christmas in Britain, appropriately enough. They had a brainstorm with things that were typical: Cards, carols, stockings, food (turkey rather than goose), mistletoe, Father Christmas and the chimney and when presents were opened (25th, rather than the 24th as in Germany). They were then content to have a bit of fun and cut out and make Christmas cards and then had a sing-along which I (half-heartedly) participated in too, singing Jingle Bells, We wish you a merry Christmas and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

A rather nice, if vaguely embarrassing way to round off my week and indeed, the term!

Travel decisions

‘Winter is nature’s way of saying, “Up yours.”‘ (Robert Byrne)

As you may have seen recently, if you’ve not been living in a cave in Europe, there has been a large amount of (some would say ‘inevitable’) disruption to flights, trains and major road networks throughout western Europe. The UK, Germany, France, Belgium, Holland and northern bits of Spain have all been hit with varying degrees of disruption.

Heathrow airport, for example, is now no-doubt the baine of many travellers’ existences, with it being shut to all but 14 flights over the weekend due to snow and ice. Meanwhile here in Germany, Frankfurt airport has been particularly badly hit, with it cancelling over 500 flights (around 35% of its daily amount) on Monday morning. Added to this is that, while Deutsche Bahn has been handling the snow fairly well, there have still been some huge delays on long-distance services (up to 5 hours on one ICE service) – and delays of 10-15 minutes on most local Regionalbahn trains over the last couple of weeks are something that I’ve just come to accept. At least, to their credit though, they are still attempting to run a service and are doing so rather effectively. Spiegel.de has done a nice slideshow of some of the ‘chaos’ around the country.

This though, brings me onto my own travels: Getting home for Christmas.

I always had it in the back of my mind, even in August when I first arrived here, that getting home during the winter could be tricky. Now, I realise that my ideas and vague concern back then, were well and truly justified!
Today (Tuesday), Frankfurt airport was shut for three hours due to snow clearance and, although there is no more snow due to hit Frankfurt in the next few days, this prompted me to search for other options.

My original plan was to fly with BA from Frankfurt to London City, which served me well heading to London for the UKGC conference a few weeks ago. This evening, I searched for other flights, and now have two other options: the one Ryanair flight a day airport of Altenburg (which is shut until tomorrow due to snow, so I can discount that right now, effectively) or Berlin, also with Ryanair, back to Stansted. I also hit upon the idea of, if everything goes absolutely arse over tit (unlikely, but who knows), attempting to get the train back to the UK. With Eurostar out of action, I had a search and discovered that, from Weimar to Calais, it takes around 10 hours, plus 90 minutes of ferry crossing, plus then the journey back from Dover to Essex. I think it’s safe to say that I’ll have had to have run out of all options before considering that!

So, on Thursday then, it’ll be a case of checking the weather, checking the airports, thinking on my feet and ultimately hoping that Frankfurt remains snow and relatively delay free, so I can get back home to recharge myself for a few days. Whatever happens though, it’ll sure be interesting! Who says snow and winter can’t be fun, eh?

Creative Writing: Time

‘Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day.‘ (Withnail and I, 1986)

The ticking of a clock beguiles and cajoles us into thinking that time is a measurable entity. It is, rather, what we make of it. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years and more beyond – all defined by us. These arbitrary measurements give us order, something to cling onto in life’s fast lane.

Time can give us relief, something to count down to, to aspire to; yet equally it can cause us to panic at the hours, days, years of life that are falling by the wayside, bringing the onset of an exam, job, responsibility, a reason to mature, committment, offspring or retirement.

Confusion can reign: Have I been asleep for 1 hour, or maybe 10 or 24? Again, the clock rights our world and causes us to either put our heads back down on the pillow, safe in the knowledge that we can get another couple of hours shut eye, or causes us to jump up, awake in an instant, adrenaline showing its power. Can’t be late, can’t be late – ‘time is of the essence’, after all.

Happiness (married for five years), sadness (dead for ten), competition (faster than him), boredom (doing a job for five hours solid without a break), despair (life’s gone nowhere over the past two years), jealousy (you were given how much?) and many, many more feelings can be experienced, purely through the notion of time.

We’re dominated by the ticking of seconds, minutes, hours. Society runs on it. Is this a good or bad thing?