Ich Habe So Viel Gelernt!

I know this blog is quite late but I have been so busy enjoying my last week in Stuttgart. I am currently sitting in Frankfurt airport waiting for my flight back home and while I sit here I am thinking about my time in Germany. Ich habe so viel gelernt! I have learnt not only about the language and the culture here but also about myself. It was a real challenge here to begin with. I have never lived away from home before so settling in to a new environment was quite difficult, but once I started to get used to it here then it was fantastic. I had a great experience with my host family who looked after me very well and living with them also helped me to experience German culture. I definitely recommend staying with a host family as mine were more than willing to suggest things for me to do and places for me to go. They took me to Hohenzollern and Tuebingen, and allowed me to experience German food by taking me out to dinner. 

This program has really helped me to improve my German skills. Although forming a sentence still takes a while for me, my ability to understand a conversation in German has become a lot better. I have spent so much time listening to German conversations that German now features in my dreams. I feel as though this course has really assisted me and I now feel a lot more confident about my German ability. 

I have to say that this has probably been the best experience of my life. I have made some great friends here that I am very sad to leave, and my last week involved a lot of time with them. I feel as though this program has made me gain a new confidence by putting me in a situation where I had to adapt, and now I am so used to it here that I don’t want to go home. I have definitely been bitten by the travel bug and I already plan to come back to Germany in June. 

I encourage everyone to take the opportunity to go on this exchange or any exchange because it is a wonderful experience that teaches you a lot about yourself and other cultures. It gives you the opportunity to learn in a different way to at home, to make great friends from different places, and to experience something new. 

I have to say thank you to everyone who was involved in this program, especially all my friends here, for making my time here so enjoyable and memorable. I’m really going to miss the people and the place and I really can’t wait to come back.

Auf Wiedersehen Deutschland!

Miscommunication and Extreme Jubilation

It is nearing the end of my stay in Stuttgart and I can honestly say that I am not ready to go home yet. The experiences I have had so far have been incredible and I am enjoying the German culture more than I ever thought I would. There have been a few times when I have not understood what was being said to me and other times when it was impossible to not understand because of the unexpected amount of English being thrown at me by impatient shop keepers. I have noticed that the majority of Germans can speak English, at least enough to allow them to communicate an important sentence to an English speaking person. I find that it is actually quite hard to improve my speaking because as soon as I make a mistake in my sentence or pronounce something incorrectly, the other person converts to speaking English. In a way this is accommodating and comforting, especially when you are not sure how to say the things you need to say. However, when you do have a fair idea of what you need to say, but you make a basic mistake, it is quite frustrating when they start speaking English to you. After all, making mistakes is part of learning and I think it would be a bit easier to learn if there were more opportunities to practice speaking without the conversation always converting back to English. However, there have also been times when I have misunderstood a German person and been quite confused. For example, the use of “Wer” meaning “who”, and “Wo” meaning “where” confuses me quite often. I always mix up the meanings of these words because of the similar sounding English words. So there have been a few times where I have answered a question incorrectly and received a few funny looks. I think that I will just have to practice remembering the meanings of these words among others.

Besides the difficulties in speaking and understanding here I have had a great week last week. I have been on excursions to the Linden museum and Haus der Geschichte as part of the Cross Cultural Communication course. Both of these excursions were very interesting, especially the latter, as it taught me more about German history. In the last week I have also formed more friendships which I am not looking forward to leaving. I have really enjoyed the opportunity to meet people from places other than Perth and making friends is always fun. I have also had the chance to go to die Mineralbade, which were amazing. It was snowing when we went, so it was an awesome experience to swim in hot water outside while snow was falling on your face. I am definitely happy with my experience of Germany so far and I am reluctant to return home after being surrounded by so many wonderful places and people.

Germany Is Pretty Awesome

Okay, so this blog is a little late but that’s only because I’ve been super busy enjoying my time here. I am finding that my ability to understand a conversation in German has improved greatly, although my speaking ability is still not very good. The class is really helping me to learn grammar and listening to the teacher explain a concept in German is a little difficult at times but very rewarding. 

Am Samstag sind wir in den Schwarzwald gegangen. Es war sehr schön, weil es überall hat geschneit. I’m not sure if I said that right. The Black Forest was so beautiful and because it was my first proper encounter with snow I was sehr excited. I am really enjoying experiencing things here that I cannot see or do in Perth. It is without a doubt that I would not be learning in the way that I am here if I was in Perth. I don’t think that there is anything like experiencing the real thing in order to learn. I would definitely recommend this program to everyone because not only does it assist your learning, it also allows you to be immersed in another culture. 

                                                                   Schwarzwald

Seeing snow, listening to random German conversations on the train, and seeing the Dropkick Murphys last night have been just some of the things that are making this trip worthwhile for me. I am finding that I am really starting to feel at home here. I’ve met some awesome people and I think I could get home from most places in Stuttgart by myself now. It’s taken a little time for me to settle in but now I don’t think I’ll be ready to go home in two weeks. 

I am having a lot of fun and I feel that I have already learnt quite a bit. I think that I’ll definitely have to come back to Germany again because it has been a great experience so far. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6Uk4hAp9Ps 

Dropkick Murphys - Going Out In Style