Took a German break

Honestly, I haven't actively studied German until recently. I pretty much took a break after I got back from Germany last fall, and wasn't really motivated to do anything with it.

Before my break, I had already watched several Easy German videos and was a member, so I got access to transcripts and exercises. Then I went to Germany with their German-learning and activity program, came back, joined a Discord group with some wonderful people from that trip, and eventually stopped going because of the time difference; they were seven hours ahead of me and while it was Sunday or Wednesday night for them, it was daytime for me, when I was doing things IRL. I cancelled my Easy German membership because I needed to take a break. And since I was back in the USA, there weren't any in-person classes near me, and though I met a couple Germans or heard German on the street, it was so minimal here, I just didn't feel it. 

And I wanted to get back to focusing on French, since I'm taking classes, and Japanese, which I study on my own and by watching some NHK shows (with subtitles). And even Spanish, which my ESL students and coworkers speak, and is pretty much the second language here. It also helps that the Spanish-speakers here are very friendly and will speak Spanish with you, even if you're not that great. If you're interested in languages, learning Spanish is the best experience and is practical, as well. 

I've been watching Easy Italian before going to Italian class and was thinking, wow, what a friendly culture with a beautiful language. So different and seemingly easier than German. Then it hit me: other than reading and sometimes translating tweets on Twitter/X, I hadn't studied German nor looked at Easy German videos for four months. I think it was because some of the people in the Easy German videos were more like media talent than educators offline (and I've worked in both media and education, so I know the difference), and I didn't really want to see them in videos for a while, and I didn't really want to deal with the difficulties with German for a while, either. I just didn't expect that "while" to last more than a few months.

Now I'm over my disillusionment and dread of complex and wordy German challenges, and I'm definitely motivated to keep trying. Earlier this week I had a couple hours before I had to go outside, so I watched 1.5 hours of Easy German videos. Today I plan to read some entries in Meyers Kinderlexicon and probably do stuff in my textbook from GLS (where I studied in Berlin).

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.