I ended up here while trying to track down the Annik Rubens podcast. I’ve been fortunate to have traveled to Germany seven times, between 3-7 weeks, the last time (while unemployed) soaking up reruns of “Blossom” in German after Mittagsessen with my relatives and a nice hike in the Schwabisch Alb.

Anyway, the last few years, while in grad school, and with the advent of the Internet, I would plop on my really comfortable SOny MDR V6 headphones, and listen to Deutsche Welle “Passively”- meaning I didn’t try to listen “Actively” or for content, but just as background, as I went about typing papers or surfing.

Before that, I used the excellent Champs Elysee Audio magazine cassettes, an hour or so long, and then simply cycled through them, essentially memorizing them!

I’ve been told my ACCENT is great- quite an accomplishment, given my Philadelphia twang!

So, again, passive immersion IS possible if you are able to devote the time, as you do, but maybe longer pieces are required?

Tschuess!

I’m going to cover this in the next few days in my blog. But I understand now why one of the first questions they ask in this company is whether you speak a second language, and they are less concerned with which language. Unless you know yourself that uncertainty, that “do I really speak German” feeling, you will not feel comfortable here, nor will you be able to communicate well enough to succeed here.

You have a point on age, too Simran. I started learning German in, I think December of 1999 or maybe January of 2000, for a trip in June 2001. I was 43 years old when I STARTED learning the language. That has a profound effect on how I learn this language, and how comfortable I will ever feel in it. I may actually have an advantage over Dr. Shepherd, in that perfect grammar (which I absolutely do not possess) is less important to me - I will never be a teacher of this language, only a communicator. So when I make mistakes I may be less self-concious about it.

your German is excellent and you know it! The only thing I found different about it was the American accent that flavours it. Probably just like my Indian accent adds to my German one.

I don’t know if I feel the way you do. I just think that I don’t get enough exposure to German here in India. Even watching DW-TV or listening to German podcasts doesn’t make up for that interaction factor we get when actually conversing with someone in German on a regular basis.

You’re not the only non-native speaker who feels like a dork when talking to a German in his/her own language. I do too. The thing is that I’ve never been to Germany, I wonder if that has an effect on my accent. I think that once I’ve heard Germans speak German on a regular basis for a week or so, I’ll be almost as good as they are. Also think about age Dave. How old were you when you learned German? I had just turned 16.

Yes Julie, we finally all know what Annik looks like! Check out this post I wrote right after watching Filme und So Video for the first time.

You always sound great to me. Not that that says much.

It amazes me how much difference immersion makes. For folks other than Dave who don’t know, I spent two months in immersion German last fall. But I still feel like there is so darn much to learn. The current plan is to do it again, maybe even repeatedly, although never again for two months - next time one month at a time - and not until I’ve been in this job a couple of years, so I am probably targeting spring/summer 2008 as the first possible moment.

GI has summer programs, some for teachers (in BERLIN, mind you) and even has some fellowships. You should apply for one. That’s what they’re for.

And we have at least 3 local German conversation options, two in Virginia (Stammtish on weekends, meetup group one wednesday, and a regular Konversationsabend downtown at GI (monthly) with honest to goodness native speakers at all three. Annik Rubens is great (and the world now knows what she looks like!) but you don’t speak there. Opportunity to speak with people is by far the hardest thing to arrange over here.