This past Saturday I was driving around Fairfax County in the rain, running errands and listening to podcasts. As I listened to Filme und so, the German movie-review podcast with Annik Rubens and Timo Hetzel, I realized that podcast is just about the only place I get information on new and soon-to-be-released movies nowadays. Annik and Timo are great reviewers and film experts, and theirs is an interesting program that is easy for a fluent non-native speaker of German to understand.
(I’m fascinated to see that Simran has posted pictures of Annik and Timo, from the first video version of their podcast that he had seen.)
It’s a bit funny that I’m getting my film news almost exclusively from Filme und so, because the original reasons I subscribed to it were that Annik Rubens, a podcasting colleague and acquaintance, is half of the team, and that it was one more way for me to listen to “real” German on a regular basis.
I am a 20-year-veteran German teacher with a Ph.D. in German from Vanderbilt University; I’ve published two books and some articles on German literature, etc., etc. Yet I probably will always feel inadequate as a speaker of German. I never lived in German-speaking Europe for more than four weeks at a time, I didn’t spend any growing-up years there, I am not married to a German, nor did I hear it spoken at home as I was growing up.
This is all to say that I never had a real, true, undiluted immersion in the German language. I can’t afford to travel to central Europe frequently, so I go there every two summers or so with American high school students. This is, of course, an intrinsically watered-down, or at least somewhat simplified, experience in the German language.
I sometimes feel like a poseur when I “do” German. Listening to myself converse with Annik last summer on Schlaflos in München, I felt like I sounded like a complete imbecile who could barely put together a simple sentence in German.
And yet–I wonder whether all non-native speakers of any language always feel that way?
Wow.
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.
Dave,
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.
Here’s an interesting addendum to this. Maybe all, or I’d say the vast majority of non-native speakers of a language never feel really comfortable in their Fremdsprache. (My guess is that our friend Klaus is an exception) What happens in a company like mine, where the variety of native languages is so great? I’ve worked in the last 2 1/2 monts with five or six french guys, three chinese guys and only two other native English speakers. Emails in French and occasionally German cross my desk (usually followed up by an English translation).
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.
Two more courses and I’ll be a qualified teacher, Julie! And without being even remotely modest here, I’ll tell you that I live for German grammar.
Good for you Simran. I’m still in the Mittlestufe (though admittedly at the end of it).
Simran, you ARE a Word Nerd/du bist DOCH ein Wortklauber!
Good for you Simran. I’m still in the Mittlestufe (though admittedly at the end of it). And while I don’t worry about grammar when I am in conversation, I do always strive to improve it. I am much pickier about grammar when I blog, for example, than when I talk.
Hi,
this is murali from chennai. Just fumbled upon this blog while searching for german related stuff. I am a S/W engineer and i have enrolled for a german language course at Max Mueller Bhavan, chennai. Initially everything was fine, i was learning really well. Bt as time went on, i somehow lost the focus. Can anyone tell me as to what i should do to make my german learning exercise, a great experience?
Hi,
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!