Sprechen Sie Englisch?

All my conversations with unknown people started with this. It means ‘do you speak English?’. Generally people here cannot, but they oblige you by replying in broken English. I don’t know what I would have done if they couldn’t at all. I also met some who actually could speak but said ‘no’. Only after they realised that my German skills were close to none, they switched to English. After joining German course, I added a few more sentences to my repertoire and started asking queries in German. This created a new problem. I start in German with ‘can you help me with this’, ‘where is this’ or something similar. In response, I listen for keywords that’ll answer my question. But most of the times, the response is not exactly how I expect. Also, people speak so fast that I can’t understand anything. Then I have to apologize and ask ‘sorry, I cannot understand German well. Can you speak English?’. Basically, I can speak German well enough to say I cannot speak it.

I visited Vienna recently. Austrian people speak slowly. So I could actually understand what they said. I was particularly happy when, using my limited German vocabulary, I helped a man (yes!) open automated locker at the train station. It feels great when people understand what you say and vice versa. Such conversations are not more than 5-6 sentences long. But I feel triumph when they culminate without the need of English. Conversations with our janitor are funny. He is such a nice fellow that he always speaks in broken English with me. To make him comfortable, I speak in broken German. When something is impossible to say, we message each other using translator. 

My basic German course ended in July. It had been so many years since I learnt a new language. Fifteen, to be exact. I felt a childish joy sitting in the classroom, learning new words. It was an awesome experience. The teacher was very encouraging and insisted on speaking German from day 1. Plus, I met new people from different countries. After almost 5 months in Dresden, I actually started seeing familiar faces in University cafeteria. Unfortunately, our contact waned after the course ended. But I am looking forward to the next level course that will start in October. So far, learning progress has been good. I have started watching English movies with German subtitles. I also borrowed children’s books from a friend. It’s hard to keep up after a few paragraphs because I have to refer to the dictionary after every 2-3 words. But I must persist. Let’s see how that goes.

Till next time, tschüss!