| 18.10.2009 |
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| I remember coming to Germany for the first time in May 2003. I was scared, devastated and kept on telling myself that the reason I was going to Germany was to get a good education that I could make use of back home in Kenya. My first big worry and equally wrong assumption was the food and the cold winter tales I had frequently heard of in Kenya. A Kenyan friend of mine told me winter in Germany is like being locked up in a freezer. So a week before I came, I put my hand in the freezer for a 5 minute experiment, just to get an idea of how cold it was really going to be. 2 minutes into my experiment, my hand was out and catching up on the hot Mombasa sun. Afterwards, I was dreading the winter even before I had boarded the plane heading north. But I was very wrong and was to discover another problem despite cold winters, different food and homesickness: That of the German language. Learning German is not easy. Anybody who has tried to master the language will speak of the horrors. From the 3 famous articles, "der, die und das" to terrible grammatical rules that will leave any ambitious student with a headache. I personally have a love-hate relationship with the German language although people say I speak "ferry gut German." Luckily for me, I was able to get rid of the terrible "ich" after a drilling Sprechtraining from the Deutsche Welle. Sprechtraining is German for speech training. Nevertheless, I do have my own share of incorrect intonation (Betonung) and pronunciation. My best example is however the always eminent and terrible "Umlauts," a true challenge for any foreign speaker of the language. Umlauts are those vowels which have some strange dots on top of them, like ä,ö,ü. They are pronounced like ae (Käse), oe (Möchte) or ue (Müller) or can simply be pronounced long. Here is an interesting link explaining the Umlauts. Furthermore, learning German also involves mastering the never-ending problem of "Du" and "Sie." Deciding whether to use the informal or formals "you" is a perennial headache for German learners. Anyone over 16 must, according to polite rules, be "Siezen" until they give you permission to "Duzen" them. But the guideline always differs according to age, manner of dress, and where you meet the people. When dealing with young people, a Du is in most cases appropriate. However, in a business meeting, the work environment, and when dealing with older people, the Sie form immediately applies. Avoid the mistake of using a Du with someone in uniform, such as a member of the police force for instance. Personally, I learned German mainly by doing. After 2 months of Goethe Institute and 1 month at the Colonaden School in Hamburg, and with just enough grammar to keep my interest high, I decided it was time to learn the language the simple way: by watching cartoon networks. The good thing about learning a language by watching kids programs is that the characters speak slowly and clearly. However, this endeavour demands patience. But why should anyone learn German? Here a few reasons why it is worth the try: first of all, it is the widely spoken language in Europe, that of "Dichter and Denker" - the world's greatest Poets and Philosophers of the 18th and 19th century, in addition, Germany is world's 3rd strongest economy and number 1 export nation, meaning that being acquainted with German creates business opportunities, furthermore, Germans are innovators and great Engineers, and last but not least, big holiday spenders and are found in all the corners of the world! But there is hope for all German learners out there: Since German is spelled phonetically, learning the system of sounds helps to predict how each word is spoken and written. Check out Deutsche Welle's German language courses and explore the language while making all the mistakes you can want right here. |
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