Herzliche Gruesse,
Ich bin Bea Sempere und ich bin aus Chicago. Chicago ist nicht die Hauptstadt von Illinois. Wie heisst du?
Translation:
Heartfelt Greetings,
I am Bea Sempere and I am from Chicago. Chicago is not the capital city of Illinois. How are you called?
Since the beginning of September, I have been learning German from meinem Liebsten (my Love). We are working from a textbook and two workbooks, but it’s difficult not being in an environment where German is the primary language. I want to learn German so I can a) communicate with mein Liebster’s parents and brother, and b) in case we wind up living in Germany for a year or two. It will give me a head start before taking an extensive German course out there.
It’s tough learning a language at this stage in my life, and German isn’t an easy language to learn. English was derived from the Germanic language, yet much of what is utilized in German, isn’t in English. Unlike a Spanish translation, German doesn’t translate well into English—at least not word for word. There are many English words and phrases that don’t exist in German, and different grammatical rules.
All nouns have an article: (die) feminine, (der) masculine and (das) neutral. Not only do I have to learn the nouns, I need to learn the article forms…and on top of that…the article changes with the noun depending on the object. Nouns are capitalized, too. Wie heisst die Biologielehrerin? How is the biology teacher called? The ending is “in”, which indicates that the biology teacher is female. That’s why the article is “die”. If the biology teacher is male, it would be der Biologielehrer. My brain does flips when I have to say and write out a number. Germans start with the second number first, such as 43 (my age). Ich bin dreiundvierzig Jahre alt. I am 43 years old.
I’m actually enjoying the challenge until mein Liebster starts talking fast. Like all languages, he blends his words together as opposed to annunciating each one, so I’ll be using Wie bitte? Excuse me? plenty of times.
Do you speak a second language?
Bratwurst and beer,
Ich heisse frau Riley... :D (right? Am I a frau??) I took German in grade school & remember liking it, but I'm sure when you're younger, second languages are easier to absorb. I went on to take many years of Spanish, but I only know un poquito b/c I never used it. As an adult, I wish I could learn Polish (talk about a language NOT easy to learn!) since it's my heritage.. But I think for now I'll have to settle on good ol' English.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to you on learning German. I would think, with someone close to you teaching it, you'd have a much better chance to learn it, than straight from a text book, no?
Tolle! Frau Riley.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Polish is tough. It's probably similar to Lithuanian.
Learning German from someone close to me is a bit easier than just from a textbook, but one hour a day is a struggle without using what I'm learning.