rekindled spirit

a rose named Rose

i have come to the conclusion that yes, as it’s been said before, german is harsh to the ears but it is definitely music for the heart. it is an extremely expressive language, which owns four cases of complicated grammar. last week, much to my delight, i successfully completed my intensive (5 days a week, 5 hours a day) deutsch sprache und integrations kurs with an A  :).  i never in my wildest dreams thought i would be a german speaker, or any other language for that matter. as many people do, i always assumed that i did not need more than english- i even thought i was ahead of many as it is my second language (tigrinya is my first). after i signed up for the course last september, i told everyone  i was learning german for my children that i could communicate with them.  just like i was learning to bake so that i could bake for them or to sew so that i could make their costumes for plays and halloween. i joked that i had to make sure i understood what they were saying to each other in case they were plotting to flood the living room with the garden hose or to burn the house down. the truth was, i needed to learn german in order to communicate with the baker, the electrician, the postman, my immigration officer, the pharmacist, my in-laws, neighbors, other adults on the playground, the outside world! the anticipation of attending this course was killing me. yeah, i fell in love with a german man, had his babies, and moved to his country, but i found it a burden to learn his language. it just seemed so hard and it was. it was a surprise that it became a pleasant experience. i met people from every continent, made new friends, the teachers were fantastic (we had 3), and aside from a few humiliating moments, learning german was close to painless. slowly, loaded with grammatical errors, i started to hold conversations, tell stories, and express my opinions. people understood me. the more i did it, the more i enjoyed it and the more i enjoyed it, the more i did it.  i never thought i would say this but it was exciting. it was like solving a mystery over and over again. all of sudden everything and everyone made sense. i have learned that learning a new language is an exercise for the mind more than it is for the tongue and that the challenge is not easy but it sure is rewarding. during this experience, my discovery was reinforced by an irish rose named Rose. a lovely woman who sat across from me in class.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2007 at 6:16 pm and is filed under life in deutschland.