I went to Germany

For the first time in a couple decades, I took a trip abroad. The only foreign country I've gone to since I went to Brazil in the early 21st century is Canada, which I've only driven to (Chicago to Toronto is doable). It was such an incredibly fantastic trip, I didn't write or post anything about it while I was there. I was totally immersed in every single detail around me. The minute I got on the train from the airport, I was totally wrapped up in everything I saw and experienced; I was truly excited for the first time in I don't know how long.

I went there with Easy German, which has a relationship with GLS, where I studied German three hours a day, five days a week for two weeks. I've always wanted to study a language abroad, and I finally got to do it! What's lame is that out of the 60 people in the Easy German group, I had the worst German. I got into an A2.2 class (barely squeaking by the minimum requirement of A2 level for the program), which was fantastic for me. The level was a bit difficult but manageable, and the teachers were great. They were all native speakers (which I require for my language-learning; I would've changed classes if they weren't), and while they weren't highly trained teachers, they had that necessary quality for me: they liked people. The 59 other people in the program were high B1/B2-C2 and spoke German with each other all the time. When we had activities, there was a lot of German going on. 

For instance, when we took a trip to the Reichstag dome, I thought we were just going to go in, look at the amazing view, and leave. So I got pretty nervous when the leaders gave a lecture about the German political system. I tried to follow but couldn't grasp the gist, so I just looked around, at the river and birds, people-watching and enjoying the sun, while I was realizing that studying a few languages simultaneously has watered down my progress in anything :p 

I thought the lecture would be it, but they broke us up into small groups to discuss politics, and gave us conversation topics. I was with a couple of guys who were pretty fluent, and I had no idea what they were talking about because the conversation was intellectual and too complex for moi. I just enjoyed the nice weather and tried to comprehend what they were saying.

A lot of people say that it's hard to learn German in Berlin because everybody speaks English, and I learned that English is the lingua franca of the world (which is ironic to use a French phrase to talk about English in that way). No matter where people were from, they spoke English. Even though it's the dominant language in the U.S., I had no idea that it's the main way that people from different countries communicate with each other throughout the world. Sometimes I think it's almost downplayed where I live because people can avoid using English for their entire lives, if they want, and there's no pressure to learn it. 

Amazingly, I spoke German in Berlin with the residents, even though people in my program who were excellent in it said that they had a hard time avoiding using English. For instance, if I went to a store or whatever, they might speak some English, but I would just keep speaking German like I knew what was going on. Then they would stay with me in German even though my German wasn't great. But I think it was my attitude, like I belonged there or something. I did this repeatedly throughout my trip and it was definitely what I went there for, so I achieved what I wanted.

At one point, however, my plan backfired when a fluent German-speaking woman from Brazil asked me a question at a restaurant and I couldn't totally comprehend what she was saying, so we switched to English and talked about a lot of stuff. I wouldn't have been able to stay with such a deep conversation in German anyway, so it worked out. But I guess I was navigating everything so confidently she thought I was a German ace. In other situations, I would just tell people "Ich lerne Deutsch" after subjecting them to my weak German, and they'd smile and sometimes would say that my German is really good. That's probably because I grasped what they were saying without looking like I was trying; the key perhaps was quick, confident communication instead of perfect grammar.

Best of all, I spoke Spanish, French, and Japanese in Berlin. In fact, I spoke more Japanese in Germany than I do at home, and Japanese people had no problem with me speaking with them; they were totally open and cool. Turns out there's a Japanese community in Berlin, and I even went to a Japanese grocery store. In Leipzig, I heard a couple of women speaking Japanese, talking about some shirts at a museum. I asked them in Japanese if they were from Japan, and I ended up chatting with one of them. That doesn't happen where I live; if I ask someone if they're from Japan, they'll say yes, and switch to English or not talk to me. But the Japanese people I met in Germany were really friendly and didn't care if I was speaking Japanese; we had to speak either poor German or better Japanese, and I chose the latter. 

The French experience was surprising: I was in a courtyard where Japanese, German, and other people were selling food. I spoke Japanese to one person, walked to a booth run by a French woman, and we started speaking German. Then she asked me if I spoke French, and I said a little, so we switched to French! We spoke for a bit, and while I could totally understand what she was saying but wasn't fluent, she didn't care because we were communicating. And she didn't even ask nor care about any English at all. 

I also spoke some Spanish, ironically at GLS, and met some wonderful people from Latin America in the Easy German group who only spoke German with me and each other. One day a group of us, led by Easy German's Manuel, went to Dresden, and I spoke German for 10 hours! Because the Latin American people I'd met were totally friendly and communicative, I just kept talking, even though I had to keep stopping to ask them to correct me or help me with my paltry German vocabulary. 

And I spoke with other people in German as well. But on the train back to Berlin, I decided to give German a break, and started speaking English with a British person because she was speaking English with another Brit (both of whom spoke fluent German btw). As we were talking about British TV, Manuel yelled from another seat, "Sprechen nur Deutsch!" So I proceeded to switch from my perfect English to bad German, while the Brit responded in her rapid-fire perfect German. Because I was already excited to be with so many cool people while learning another language (instead of toiling alone as I've done for years), I walked to another seat, which was near Manuel, and spoke with an American in German for a while. Her German was awesome because she's been to Germany often and was good about consistently studying it in the U.S. So there I was, speaking bad German and trying to get my ideas across as Manuel sat across the aisle, probably feeling pity for moi as I managed to butcher his language (plus he's aced Spanish and English, so he's very comfortably trilingual).

The next day I woke up with a sore throat and ended up getting sick. That's what 10 hours of German will do to you, especially if you're not fluent in it! But at least I tried. I took advantage of every opportunity to speak German in Germany, whether I was studying in Berlin or traveling to Leipzig and Erfurt. There aren't a lot of Americans in those cities, so I was lucky, but at the same time some people would speak English, probably because they don't get many chances to use what they've learned.

When I went to Germany, my goal was to learn enough German to travel and get around, and to know enough to chat with people, and I attained it! I even had some more complicated conversations in German, and I don't think people knew that I didn't grasp everything, but that's fine--I got to do what I've wanted to do for years: spend a month in another country learning a language and applying it during my stay.

When I got back, I thought I would just focus on German because I was made acutely aware of my deficiencies, but I'm really into French, Spanish, and Japanese, and have been juggling all those because just focusing on one language seems limiting. Of course, if I had to live in Germany I would do everything to become fluent and educated, but while I have a choice, I'll stay with the multilingual pursuits. I've also resumed translating stuff on Twitter/X, and it's become sort of an obsession, or at least a passion, and I'm just really happy to have time in my life for languages again. Es macht Spaß! Und danke Deutschland! 🇩🇪

Reichstag Dome with some people from the group (who were German aces)

One of my German teachers: native speaker from Berlin who speaks fluent Portuguese and English!

p.s. the e-book version of my debut novel is still at Amazon, and the price for the print version has been reduced: buy at the Eckhartz Press site.