So much English, so little Internet
The title pretty much captures it all. My apologies about not updating this regularly. It's a bit more of a pain for me to have internet access than I had anticipated, so I will probably update about once a week or so. We'll see. I might cave and pay for internet access at Goethe, even though they only have three computers and I've heard that the internet there is really slow.
My plan for speaking only German here was HIGHLY unrealistic. To begin, my German stinks, and so it would have been tough to do anyway. But that's not too much of a problem. The big block is that there are so many Americans/English speakers here, and it's really tough to avoid English altogether. Even when I only speak in German, a lot of people continue to speak to me in English. And a lot of the really interesting people (mostly other graduate students) are in the no-German category. (Most of them decided it would be beneficial for them to learn German for their research, and are starting their German studies relatively late.) My roommate, for example, is a grad student and seems like a great person, but she knows NO GERMAN WHATSOEVER. That's right, she's in German A1-1. I told her that I'll give her a month, and then I'm switching to German. But for the time being, it's kind of hard, because it's kind of rude of me not to speak to her at all, and a little awkward when I only talk to her in German and she has no clue what I am saying. I'm trying to find a good balance between English and German. My new goal (for the time being) is to speak more German than English every day. That's more realistic, I think.
So, no great drama to report on. I've been studying during most of my time here, so I haven't had any drunken nights. Nor am I really planning to, although I should probably go out a bit more. My classes keep my pretty busy, and I just feel too old for the late nights now. Especially since we have class every morning at 8:30. It's good for me, but yikes! I'm trying to get out some every day though, even when I have a lot of work and I'm exhausted. It's just so beautiful here to spend all my time studying.
There is probably an even mix of undergrads and grads here, as well as a few older people mixed in. But as I mentioned earlier, the grads tend to not know German, while the undergrads that DO know German tend to not use it and want to talk to everyone in English. Tough. I really need to meet and spend some time with Germans. New goal for the future.
Next time: Juicy news on Lisa's personal life. Umm, yeah.
My plan for speaking only German here was HIGHLY unrealistic. To begin, my German stinks, and so it would have been tough to do anyway. But that's not too much of a problem. The big block is that there are so many Americans/English speakers here, and it's really tough to avoid English altogether. Even when I only speak in German, a lot of people continue to speak to me in English. And a lot of the really interesting people (mostly other graduate students) are in the no-German category. (Most of them decided it would be beneficial for them to learn German for their research, and are starting their German studies relatively late.) My roommate, for example, is a grad student and seems like a great person, but she knows NO GERMAN WHATSOEVER. That's right, she's in German A1-1. I told her that I'll give her a month, and then I'm switching to German. But for the time being, it's kind of hard, because it's kind of rude of me not to speak to her at all, and a little awkward when I only talk to her in German and she has no clue what I am saying. I'm trying to find a good balance between English and German. My new goal (for the time being) is to speak more German than English every day. That's more realistic, I think.
So, no great drama to report on. I've been studying during most of my time here, so I haven't had any drunken nights. Nor am I really planning to, although I should probably go out a bit more. My classes keep my pretty busy, and I just feel too old for the late nights now. Especially since we have class every morning at 8:30. It's good for me, but yikes! I'm trying to get out some every day though, even when I have a lot of work and I'm exhausted. It's just so beautiful here to spend all my time studying.
There is probably an even mix of undergrads and grads here, as well as a few older people mixed in. But as I mentioned earlier, the grads tend to not know German, while the undergrads that DO know German tend to not use it and want to talk to everyone in English. Tough. I really need to meet and spend some time with Germans. New goal for the future.
Next time: Juicy news on Lisa's personal life. Umm, yeah.