me:
- physically, i am conservatively about 10 pounds heavier than when i left. my hair is scraggling now about the bottoms of my ears, and when carefully styled, resembles an odd bowl cut. i wear trousers almost everyday. i can walk in high-heeled boots. i drink black tea with milk. i own a backpack and wear a scarf without fail. i have stopped carrying around my camera and a dictionary around with me. most of the time. i swear a lot. in german and english.
- mentally, i've either grown a pair or had a pair all along and just only discovered them? i don't know. but now i seem to have no problem approaching strangers or volunteering to read passages in a language i can barely put my tongue around and i tend to feel pretty fierce. look at me.
- i actually feel pretty comfortable in conversational german at this point. by this, i mean conversational german. nattering on about the weather, a bit about books, what i've done, what i'm planning to do and all of that
- on a conversational level, i am extremely comfortable switching between german and english. sometimes, i speak what is called "Denglisch"-- that is to say, a random mix between my two languages. once i delve into more 'intense' german, say... school... when asked to call up english, i struggle like no one's business. i have moods where my german is better than others, and i dream pretty regularly in german (including with people at home speaking german... it's weird.) I can not easily change words between german and english-- like the word for the word that i've forgotten is something like "ubersetzen", but i can't for the life of me remember what it is in english. i don't associate german words with english words, just their meanings. like i do in english. does that make sense? i also remember conversations in english, which is weird.
- my spoken and written english has definitely begun to deteriorate. if i'm not being careful, i sort of randomnly switch into german randomly or use german structure sentence or find myself missing the really good words that germans only seem to have.
- i am reading a lot in german and understanding books that i have not read in english. not books that require honest to god interpretation, but children's and early teen books. the speciality vocabulary for my classes are coming slowly.
- i am still terrified of using the formal Sie tense incorrectly. And I do, quite frequently, since I don't use it that frequently.
- i understand a lot more than i can say, and tend to be quite frusterated by this. for example, i can hear a word, understand it, repeat it, write it down... and then 5 minutes later, go and try to use the same word and boom-access banks DENIED. if i hear the word, i know it, and can spell it, but i can't independently recall it. annoying.
- i am pretty pleased with my german. i get a lot of compliments. i know that most of them are like "be nice to the girl, she's no idea what's going on." but when you pass as a native, or a german teacher (?) it's nice. and like, being able to ask people for directions? ace.
- well, i am probably not passing any of my classes. but i'm understanding i'd say about 80 percent. depends on whether or not i'm listening.
- i take back any previous statements, my new class is made of love. they are seemingly thrilled to have me and think my fail!german is adorable. they have yet to discover that i am not a worterbuch, but that will come in time. example: (katie: points at object): how do you call that? classmate: that's a ______________. der ______________. (slowly)... should I write it out for you? It's amazingly sweet. And I understand my new class a lot better. but in class and everything as well. it's weird.
- i am starting to make friends, although not really with the germans
- i think i am going to start volunteering
- i am writing, a lot, but not poetry
- i have been accepted (as of now) to all of the colleges i applied to. i am just waiting for one, which is my top choice.
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