This week has been one huge roller coaster for my confidence in German speaking. I have successfully completed my A1 German course but interacting outside of a classroom setting is a completely different experience. Talking to the kids is no problem and it actually helps me learn because 4-year-old Lisa ALWAYS points out my mistakes :). My host Mom also talks to me mostly in German which is good practice and she knows to speak a little slower to me since I'm not a native speaker....but get me out in public and have a random stranger come up to me and I'm like a deer in headlights. Instead of saying something in German like, "Sorry, could you repeat that?" or "Can you speak slower?", I just blurt out "Oh sorry, I don't speak German" in English. FAIL. The worst part is when the German then says, "It's okay, I speak English too".....well, thank you very much for confirming the fact that I suck and you can fluently speak more than one language. Lately these interactions have been happening in the woods when I'm walking my host family's dog so maybe that's a sign I need to learn more words related to pets. Anyway, after this happened two times this past week I dove into some hardcore German learning. I had been practicing before but mainly just reviewing grammar and now I'm beginning to think it's my lack of vocabulary that's holding me back....besides....even if I say the sentence completely backwards, as long as all of the correct words are there I'm sure someone will understand me. Here's to hoping!
