After five months in Germany, I came home for a visit. My first thought on returning: jetlag sucks! But more seriously, when I reflect upon the cultural differences, I have to say: same stuff, different language. Ok, I admit it, the language isn't that much different, since the Germans use so many english words (for example, the Germans use the verb abgefuckt when something is really kaput). I often have the problem in Munich that Germans want to practice their English with me. But I'm here to practice my German with them! So here's how it goes. They hear right away from my accent that I am a native English-speaker and they start to respond to my questions in English. I persistently continue to speak in German. Despite my perfectly adequate German, they continue speaking English. And we carry on the whole ticket-buying or food-ordering conversation in this ridiculous manner, where neither of us is speaking in his/her native language. I did have this funny feeling though back in America whenever I had to talk to someone behind a counter. I would pause, as I do in Germany to prepare a few sentence fragments and check that my vocabulary is sufficient to ask for what it is I want to buy, and then I would realize that I could just ask for it. I found myself speaking a little slower but using any old English word that came into my head, and lo and behold, they always understood me. We would just have a normal conversation. I wasn't constantly thinking, "oh shit that was in the wrong case," or "what is the gender of KitKat anyway?" My conclusion: it's just too easy being able to speak English all the time. Like they say, you can never go home again. Well, maybe you can go home to buy a case of solid deodorant, but then you gotta go back to Germany, where they all seem to be using roll-on, but at least it it's got an English name.
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After five months in Germany, I came home for a visit. My first thought on returning: jetlag sucks! But more seriously, when I reflect upon the cultural differences, I have to say: same stuff, different language. Ok, I admit it, the language isn't that much different, since the Germans use so many english words (for example, the Germans use the verb abgefuckt when something is really kaput). I often have the problem in Munich that Germans want to practice their English with me. But I'm here to practice my German with them! So here's how it goes. They hear right away from my accent that I am a native English-speaker and they start to respond to my questions in English. I persistently continue to speak in German. Despite my perfectly adequate German, they continue speaking English. And we carry on the whole ticket-buying or food-ordering conversation in this ridiculous manner, where neither of us is speaking in his/her native language. I did have this funny feeling though back in America whenever I had to talk to someone behind a counter. I would pause, as I do in Germany to prepare a few sentence fragments and check that my vocabulary is sufficient to ask for what it is I want to buy, and then I would realize that I could just ask for it. I found myself speaking a little slower but using any old English word that came into my head, and lo and behold, they always understood me. We would just have a normal conversation. I wasn't constantly thinking, "oh shit that was in the wrong case," or "what is the gender of KitKat anyway?" My conclusion: it's just too easy being able to speak English all the time. Like they say, you can never go home again. Well, maybe you can go home to buy a case of solid deodorant, but then you gotta go back to Germany, where they all seem to be using roll-on, but at least it it's got an English name.