Well I survived my first week of classes and all I can say
is thank goodness that my first impression was a one-off and not indicative of
the rest. Thankfully, with the exception of that first history lecture and one
rather tricky German grammar test, it's all gone quite well and I was actually able to follow the majority
of what the lecturer’s were saying. I shan’t count my blessings yet though as a
few of those were just overviews of the courses. The real hard work starts this
week! Though, I’ve already been given French homework. Typical.
Generally, it hasn’t been too difficult making the
transition from English to German, though I’m definitely becoming more aware of
the areas I need to work on, asides from extending my vocabulary. That being
said, the combination of tiredness and complex topics does occasionally tend to
make me revert to English but that’s normal. It would be highly unrealistic to expect
to speak fluently already. Improvement happens gradually and subtly until one
day you have that ‘eureka’ moment. As of yet, I don’t think my German has
really gotten any better but I’m hoping once grammar and writing classes start that will change. For now I’m content to just learn silly colloquial expressions.
There’s nothing more surprising for a German than for a foreigner to turn
around and say “Ich muss meinen inneren Schweinehund überwinden”. This is now
one of my favourite sayings. It literally translates as “I have to overcome my
inner pig-dog”, which somehow then means ‘I need to stop being so lazy’ or
possibly even ‘I need to fight my inner couch potato’. I think couch potato is
probably the best match. The mental image is equally as bizarre.
For anyone who understands German, I somehow stumbled across
this song on the subject:
For everyone else:
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