I showed up early for my first class (as one does) and then ended up wandering around for a while outside and then wandering around for a while inside. Eventually I wandered up stairs to the room, made polite introductions to the others standing outside and then someone came running up the stairs saying, in German, this class has been moved downstairs.
So, down we go and the teacher introduces himself and then asks us to introduce ourselves. And then the student in the front of the room starts to speak, in German, in complete sentences, all about herself. Where she is from, how long she has been in Germany, what she does. And then the next one does, too. And then the next, and then the next. And I am starting to sweat bullets and make some notes cryptic to even me.
And then I stammer out, "I am Elaine. I am American. I live USA. In USA, I am acupuncture. In Germanish, I am a housewife and mother. Two months here." And the teacher listens and tells a story about acupuncture and then says, "You (and Anthony) are not on my list, you should be back upstairs." Or something like that.... Thank goodness. I just started laughing.
And up we went. There the same thing was happening.... but much slower but still no one had any clue what the teacher was saying.
I am in a class of all men, except the lovely teacher, Lucia. Three men from Poland (Bogdan, Milosh (maybe this is his name - what is important is that he is the bright one and sits in the middle) and Jan), 2 men from China (Jacky and Jinn - I sat between them), and Anthony a British dancer who also made the mistake of going down to the more advanced room (but his German is much better than mine). I hope we have fun. The teacher only speaks in German - Das ist prima! Maybe. But when you know nothing - well sometimes it is hard to make something out of nothing.
And when I was asked to read aloud I had to say "Wohlfahrt. Sabine Wohlfahrt." Which is like saying Bond. James Bond. Only the last name sounds like "Wolf fart." Tee Hee.
6 comments:
Oh dear, oh dear. I'm so glad you got to the right class! I hope it goes well! xoxo Tschussie.
I may not be doing justice to how funny this whole experience was. When I got home I laughed with George so hard I cried.
Yea! Language class. You'll be speaking in more broken sentences in no time.
Elaine--it is so good to know that even in Germanish, you are still Elaine. :)
OMG! You were in such a panic you forgot how to speak English too??!! I laughed so hard I think I hurt my neck ;)
It is good for language class to be an immersion experience, and that will be easier with students who don't share a native language. This makes me wonder what happened to the Japanese, Norwegian, Italian, Mexican, and Venezuelan students who studied French with me in Angers when I was an undergrad.
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