I haven't posted for a month or so. I don't like that, but things have gotten very intense in my German studies. And I'm keeping my promise of not writing just any old thing to post. I want this to be relevant. I decided to write about studying at the Foreign Service Institute.
This is my second language course at the Institute. I studied Russian three years ago. I'm learning German much quicker than I did Russian. This is partly because English is a Germanic language so there are many more cognates. It always amuses me when I fret over having to learn a new word - like work - only to find out that it is 'Werk'. It is also 'Arbeit', but 'Werk' will do just fine, thank you. (All nouns are capitalized in German, by the way.)
My day usually begins at 9:30 in the language lab. There I go through exercises from the current chapter. Often I read a short writing or listen to a narrative or conversation then complete a multiple choice question and answer exercise. Sometimes I must write in the answers which means that my spelling has to be sharp. The German typewriter is much easier than the Russian since our alphabets are so similar. The 'y' and the 'z' keys, however are in each other's places so I often 'misspell' words with those letters in them. Then there are all those umlauted letters and the double ess - called the 'esstset'. Those take the place of hyphens, apostrophes and other needed symbols so I need to remember where all those are located. The lab is the time during which a teacher sits and listens to you speak and comments on your pronunciation. There are repetitive exercises which we read in which there are slight changes - the subject will change or the preposition or verb, for example. These are easy enough to read, but challenging to do without the text. They are set up as a statement or question and response. I always try to listen and, without using the text, respond before the time is up. I'm getting better at this.
On Mondays at 10:30 we have Morgenkaffee for about a half hour. This is a chance to eat good food and practice our language skills with the teachers and other students from all the different levels. Sometimes I'm in the mood for this and sometimes I'm not. It is a nice gentle kickstart into the week, I must admit. All the students and teachers are in a good mood and patient with one anther. It's a good place to practice news of the weekend before sharing it in class in front of the teacher.
Usually class begins at 10:40. Our teacher always asks us for news - either of our weekend or, preferably, from the rest of the world. This is difficult as it always requires so much more vocabulary than what we have. It's okay to look up words ahead of time and speak from notes. The problem with this is, once the word has been uttered in class, the teachers tend to treat it as a learned word. Just this past Friday, my teacher kept telling me that I knew this word. I kept inisting that I did not. She said, last Thursday we used it. Last Thursday? Really? I took a vocabulary building workshop back when I was studying Russian. I don't remember the exact numbers, but I remember learning that in order to 'own' a word, one must be exposed to it and use it at least a couple dozen times. And she expects me to remember one from last Thursday. I love her faith in me. Wish I had it. Wish there was some basis for it.
We are often assigned presentations on a particular topic, sometimes we can choose our topic. This weekend I am to read a short writing about German artists and report on it. Sounds easy enough. The problems are: I don't discuss art that often in English so I'd rather not take early learning time working on art vocabulary. Also, this article is peppered with a form called 'simple past'. Simple past cannot be found in the dictionary unless one knows the original form of the verb. Sometimes this is accomplished by looking up the first few letters of the simple past form. Sometimes the vowel changes in the simple past form and it's impossible to figure it out. Pray for me. Pray for all us students. Anyway, these presentations are given in class the next day. We talk and the teacher scribbles notes and the rest of the students act like we understand each other. Actually, it's funny, we usually do understand each other. It's the teacher who is bewildered.
We break for lunch at 12:20. At 1:00 we have an hour of study hall. This was a punishment in my schools, but at the Institute it is great help. We have an hour's head start on homework and there is a teacher there to answer any questions. I love study hall. I do get uncomfortable, however, when I'm reviewing a presentation with one teacher who corrects something that another teacher gave me - a phrase or word choice, for instance. "A German would never say that!" They exclaim. I never reply, "Well, your coworker would."
At 2:10 we are back in class. About half the afternoon is spent reading material that is about four or five levels above our speaking level. I just trust that they have a reason for doing this to us. It's quite comical when it isn't purely frustrating. I read a paragraph and then I'm to say, in English (thank God) what it means. Usually in these writings, the only words I recognize are 'and' 'she' 'when' etc. The major nouns are nouns we haven't yet learned and the verbs are often in the simple past and thus are unrecognizable. The teachers say that you don't need to know every word to glean meaning. True. But, tell me, what you can glean from: ". . . where in Germany one a of over 4300 ALDI- . . .:" or ". . . and grey began the November day and . . . boring became the . . . the seashore from . . . clearer?" These examples came from our text. I left out the words I could not understand. My favorite part of reading (sometimes the most frustrating) is when I say "I don't know what 'Erfolgsgeheimnis' means." The teacher will reply, "What do you think it means?" (By the way, in German text quotation marks are slightly different. Example: „Is it a duck?“ That is one of my favorite responses when they ask me what I think it means.)
We get out of class at 4:05. 4:05, not 4:00. 4:05. Why? I don't know. I do know that our bus leave at 4:10 whether or not I'm on it. My new teacher likes to teach past quitting time. "Just one more paragraph." (A sentence takes me five minutes to translate.) I'm rude. I admit it. I'm zipping up my notebook and standing up, nodding as though I'm still paying attention and making my way to the door. The next bus leaves an hour later and I'm not going to sit around the Institute for an extra hour. No sir. My teacher takes this well. She is a good soul. I like her a lot.
The State Department employees, the diplomats, are supposed to put in two or three hours of homework time every night. That's a little much for me most nights, although sometimes I really get in to an assignment more than I expected and the time flies.
Every Thursday morning is Area Studies. This is usually a lecture relevant to the area whose language you are studying. Sometimes there is a field trip. A couple of months ago the German department went to the Goethe Institute. This week they will go to the German Embassy. I usually don't go to Area Studies. Typically the topic is not of interest to me - German banking systems, for example. So Thursday is a short day for me. I only have class from 1:00 - 3:00. Every other Wednesday is a short day for all students - 8:00 - 11:00. It is called Administrative Wednesday. This is a chance for the full time students to meet with their career development officer or take care of Visa, passport or medical needs.
Some students meet with a learning consultant. This is to be sure they are keeping up with the work and understanding everything. This is a good chance for the student to focus on a specific need. For the last two weeks I have been out of the class situation working one on one with a learning consultant. I'd like to think that this is due to my extraordinary abilities in speaking German, but I have the feelling it is because I did so poorly on the last oral evaluation. Not entirely my fault.
This has been quite good for me. My weakness is comprehension so I'm getting lots of practice. The hours are tailored to what I need and topics that I will actually discuss when I get to Germany. As I mentioned earlier, I don't want to spend time this early in my German studies to learn vocabulary I'll likely not use. This sometimes leaves me feeling shallow. One day (in class) the topic was the Cyprus banking crisis. Now, although I may discuss this with someone, I'm sure I will not head into a cafe in Munich looking for a new friend and strike up our first conversation with something like, "How 'bout the Cyprus banking crisis?" These last two weeks have been spent learning grammar and discussing my life story, writing, stories and dreams - topics I'll definitely use over there.
Doug once told me he was concerned that I may putting too much effort into these studies. Meaning that I can probably get by with English in Munich. I told him how self satisfying it is to study this hard, to really apply myself and see usable results. I think I mentioned this in my blog last year, but it bears repeating. Since I have been studying language, my memory is sharper. This may also have something to do with the fact that I don't have 40 piano students a week whose music and schedules I must remember. Maybe. It's a good side affect.
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