Language Class Is Back! And I Still Stink!

While it sure is good to get back onto a regular schedule and better myself through education and exercise in addition to the smattering of paid work I get as a copywriter, it's still plenty humbling to have the German language knocking me down a couple pegs (again!) in less than 5 minutes. I'm now attending a different school than my last one with different books, emphasis and curriculum. So instead of German for beginners, this one is called an "integration course," which promises a more practical everyday living sort of German. Gone are all of those pesky articles-- that whole "Der-Die-Das" nightmare, and more of how to do stuff, complete with field trips to the museum, the train station, and so on. Sounded good, because at best, all I can seem to process is what I call "survival German" in the short-term, and this looked to be right up my alley-- right now I don't need to know the names of each bird in the park, but I DO need to know how to order a pizza over the phone. So this couldn't possibly go wrong, right? Wrong. While I thought I'd have some sort of relative advantage over these "beginners" due to the same-level class I took in November, it became readily apparent that most of my new classmates have taken German before, however informal (and in some cases, quite formal) it may be. Plus... this was an immersion class, which meant that it was all German all the time, rapid fire. Quite a lousy feeling right out of the box to find out that I'm already near the bottom of the class, and it's likely going to stay that way. Sheesh. So anyways, I waited around until class was over to get some face time with the teacher (who speaks English quite well), just to see if, well, I belonged in this class-- was there a more basic course, perhaps something more structured? What happened next was a doozy-- she began by replying in English, then 30 seconds in, bam, switches to German. And wouldn't switch back, despite my gentle requests. Um hel-LO!! Student threatening to leave class over here!! Hey lady, turn off the meter-- the ride's over! But I could see what she was doing, as much as it ticked me off-- she was trying to show me how much I understood German after all. So I'd speak in English, she'd get it (duh), and respond in German, and I'd eventually understand what she was saying. And what she WAS saying-- I'll paraphrase here, because I don't speak German-- was to stick it out. Baby steps. Let it slowly build up. I'm not in over my head. Which was good to hear, even though she told me this in German. In the end, this 2 folks speaking different languages yet still understanding each other was sort of like Han Solo and Chewbacca from Star Wars, except that Han never wanted to headbutt Chewbacca. The image above is a still from one of the most famous movie parodies ever made, Hardware Wars, a low-budget send up of Star Wars, and one familiar to a whole generation of folks who watched early incarnations of HBO (back when they used to put short films between the features). That's Fluke Starbucker, Ham Salad, Augie Ben Doggie and Chewchilla, The Wookie Monster in the pic. George Lucas himself said that this was his favorite parody of a Star Wars film. Funny, I figured he would say Episode One: The Phantom Menace . Ba-ZING! Anyway, click HERE to see Hardware Wars. So I'll be sticking this language class out in the meantime.