I've reached a pivotal moment in my German language acquisition: I'm at the point where both my German and English are getting worse. Since this has always preceded a sudden, significant jump in my speaking ability, I'd like to say that I'm excited about this-- but I'm mostly just annoyed that I'm babbling nonsense in two languages. I am, however, extremely excited about one recent development: after years of German, a semester in Munich, and even being made fun of in a German class at Miami (by a professor, nonetheless), I can roll my Rs on occasion. YES!
When I introduce myself to new classes-- and I met three more classes this week (one of which I'm assigned to; two of which I visited to say hello)-- I give the standard, "My name is Ms. A. I'm the English foreign language assistant at My Gymnasium for this school year. I'm from the United States, and I live about four hours south of Big City" spiel and then ask if they have any questions. In 9 of the 11 classes that I visited, the questions were pretty basic-- how old am I; am I still in school; what do I want to do when I grow up? But those 10th graders... they are inquisitive!
A few questions that they asked:
- What sports do you do? ("I do gymnastics, and I also figure skate a little." A girl in the front said, "I KNEW IT" auf Deutsch after the figure skating part, which is... odd... considering that I've only been skating for about a year and a half.)
- What's your favorite fast food? ("I don't eat any meat, so I don't really eat fast food. Does Subway count? And does falafel count?" The falafel comment led to a kind of fascinating tangent about 'American' and 'German' food. I forget how I got to this comment, but I definitely remember saying, "You know what Germany doesn't have? Good Mexican food. No offense, but your Mexican food is awful. But the US doesn't have Turkish food-- no doeners! We should trade-- we'll teach you how to make salsa if you give us some falafel stands." I also remember the students agreeing that 'German' food is always represented by Bayerisch specialities and that German-ness is often falsely represented by cultural aesthetics from the south. They're so smart!) Oh, and I did find a good Mexican restaurant in Berlin.
- What do you think of Obama? ("I definitely prefer Obama to Bush and McCain <*smile*>, but I don't agree with everything that he has done. Or what he hasn't done.")
- What do you think of the death penalty? (I explained that I was morally opposed to the death penalty and that even from an economic standpoint, life in prison without parole is the better option.)
- What do South Koreans think of North Koreans? ("Well, I haven't lived in South Korea since I was a baby, so I'm not sure I can really answer this question. I think I would say that South Koreans don't have anything against the North Korean people, but they disagree with the North Korean government." This kid also got a glare from the teacher for that question.)
- Are black people discriminated against in the US? What about Asian people? (So, so, so hard to answer this question succinctly in simple sentences. I settled for something like, "Discrimination still exists in the United States. The US was still segregated about forty years ago, so it has improved a lot... but there are still problems." I also mentioned 'driving while black' and discrimination in hiring. As for the "Asian people" question, I said that the stereotype of Asians is that they're hardworking and smart, so Asians tend to face less overt discrimination in hiring practices and criminalization.)
and, of course, an insensitive question that everyone wonders:
- Where are you really from? ("I'm from the United States.") No, where are you actually from? (I was quite surprised at the other students' reactions; I had been asked that question in almost every class, and the 10b was the first to smack down the question asker. You can't ask that! That's rude! She said she was American!
I really did have a wonderful conversation with the 10bs-- they asked questions for the full 45 minutes, with the teacher's approval ("I want to ask Ms. A some questions, too!"). After responding to the "Where are you really from" question, I diverted the conversation by pointing to my experience as a German as Foreign Language learner and asked how many of them learned German as a foreign language. I also asked if any of them were like me-- identifying as German but born in another country. As a complete nerd, I thought the answers were fascinating: 2 students are native speakers of Russian (one born in Russia; one in Kyrgyzstan), 1 is a native speaker of Mandarin, 1 of Cantonese, 1 of Vietnamese (born in Vietnam), 1 of Polish, and only 1 of Turkish. Hmm, I'm forgetting one or two languages. Anyway, there are only 18 students in that class-- the diversity at My Gymnasium is really remarkable!
My favorite question: "Do you speak French?" One of the other students looked at the question asker and said something like, "Why would you ask that? Of course she doesn't!" I smiled, always glad to disprove stereotypes of Americans, and said that I took French for a semester in college and would like to sit in on some French classes at My Gymnasium. I'm still kicking myself for not responding, "J'ai étudié le français pendant quatre mois, mais je ne parle pas très bien français." I think that would have given me some serious street cred. :)
But that's okay-- I had built up my German street cred already by drawing a super simplified comparison of the major American and German political parties. Their eyes actually widened when I started plotting the CDU and SPD on the graph, and they were shocked when I added Die Linke, Die Grünen, and the NPD.
No, actually, I lied; there was a better question: "Well, I'm not sure how to put this, but you look very slim, but in the US, when you go to restaurants, you get so much more food, and everything in stores is bigger... so how are you so slim?" (HAHAHA!)
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