Learning German in Germany as an adult (part 1)

Welcome to the first post in a series that will explore the challenge of learning German as an adult in Germany. In this series, I'll discuss the shortcomings of the current system of language training programs before exploring strategies you can adopt to learn a basic command of German more effectively.

To learn a new language quickly, you need to focus on two areas: passive language and active language. Passive language skills are like the part of an iceberg beneath the water, while active language skills are the visible tip of the iceberg above the water.

Passive language skills involve understanding the language without actively using it. This includes listening and reading comprehension. For example, recognizing vocabulary, understanding grammar rules, and processing spoken and written texts are all passive skills. These skills form the foundation of language learning, providing the necessary input that helps learners understand the language structure and usage.

On the other hand, active language skills involve the actual use of the language in speaking and writing. These skills are essential for communication and involve constructing sentences, expressing thoughts, and engaging in conversations. Active skills require practice and interaction, which helps reinforce and solidify passive language knowledge.

The way most language schools teach German as a second language is often unsuccessful. These schools focus on teaching students how to speak German "properly," much like the traditional methods used in schools for learning foreign languages. They believe that to learn a language, you have to expand that area under the water as much as possible before attempting to develop your speaking skills.

 
Unfortunately, the language training programs are generally only four months long, which is not enough time to build strong passive language skills, especially if there is little focus or opportunity for developing active language skills. The training programs are four months long, five days a week and usually five hours daily. The teachers work through one textbook after another throughout this time, focusing on getting the students to pass their next language exam.

Most language lessons follow an outdated formula. In a typical 45-minute lesson, 30‑35 minutes are spent listening to the teacher work through the exercises with the students. This leaves only 10-15 minutes for the students to participate in role-play exercises or practice general conversation. This means that each student might only get a chance to speak for 1-2 minutes per lesson or 5-10 minutes a day.

Language schools are required to teach German this way due to constraints placed on them by agencies paying them to teach immigrants German (e.g., the unemployment agency). The school focuses on gaining recognition and proper compensation from the agencies. They employ trained teachers, use standard textbooks, and follow set learning plans that comply with industry standards. They are concerned with doing what everyone is doing and not whether the students leave the program being able to speak German.

 
They need to prepare their students to pass exams because the success of the programs lies in their students' passing rates. The students fear the exams because they often need them for resident and work visas. So, they attend the classes, acutely aware that their spoken German is not improving and in a steady state of frustration on how slow they are in understanding German grammar rules. While the language school methods are not inherently bad, they are not the most effective or efficient for most adults wanting to understand and speak German in day-to-day situations.

 
If the schools were allocated more time or resources, they could adopt a blended approach. They could assign more preparation and homework to students, allowing classroom time to focus on active learning through group exercises and role-playing games.

By understanding how you can balance your efforts between acquiring passive and active language skills, you can begin to explore more effective ways to learn German as an adult in Germany. Future posts will delve into these strategies, helping you navigate the journey of mastering a new language. 

Puzzling Experiences In Toronto

Here is a list of things I saw in Toronto the first few days that left me puzzled:

Condominiums built with their backyards exposed, in spitting distance, to millions of cars driving along the 401 large thoroughfare.

So much has changed in the city that I only recognise the names of the streets, but practically none of the landmarks. I haven’t been here for 25 years.

It is cold outdoors (10 degrees C), yet many people are walking around in T-shirts and flipflops. I have three layers on and regret not having brought any long sleeve turtle-neck shirts.

Most of the people I’ve seen in this area of the city are young (teens up to their 30s). I rarely see people my age or older.

A grade school traffic warden waiting at a street corner early morning for the school children to arrive: smoking one cigarette after another and looking very scruffy and hung over. What happened to the perky mothers on alternate traffic duty?

A group of overweight youths with man breasts, greasy long hair, pants that seem to mysteriously stay up somewhere in their hip regions, gold and diamond earrings on both ears, and expensive PSPs or Bluberries devices in their hands. After sitting together, in silence, in a café for an hour, one decides to go to school, two say they are skipping classes, and one goes off shopping. Initially, when they first came down to sit next to me, I thought they must be poor, then when I saw the expensive jewellery and digital devices I thought they came from rich families, then after an hour of watching them do nothing, I thought them poor in a way it is hard to explain.

I am completely baffled by the advertising. It no longer seems necessary to state what the product is or what it does. Example of three adverts:

• Billboard: Three guys standing in working clothes. In print, “Try Us” and a website address, which is something like www.tryus.com. Billboard shown in the gay sector of Toronto, so I had no idea if the guys represent various trades, a stripper’s service, or a dating platform.
• Billboard: A young woman sitting in her gym clothes, holding a cell phone. Slogan, “Fat-free mobility is here!”
• A Cover Girl nail polish restaurant washroom advert: Your husband is sampling your entreé, 16-hours of colour/ don’t miss out.

It is like they adverts are speaking a foreign language I don’t understand.

A Magic Dwells In Each Beginning

A friend of mine, Tine, is such a unique person. She can recite poetry the night through. She loves poetry, has read many volumes, and she posses the formable ability to find the right lines of poetry for every occasion or topic of conversation.

The day before yesterday I was wondering about the meaning of Wechseljahre. Tine sent me the line “A magic dwells in each beginning” from Hermann Hesse’s poem, Stufen, as a reminder that every life phase is also something positive.



Steps

As every blossom fades
and all youth sinks into old age,
so every life’s design, each flower of wisdom,
attains its prime and cannot last forever.
The heart must submit itself courageously
to life’s call without a hint of grief,
A magic dwells in each beginning,
protecting us, telling us how to live.

High purposed we shall traverse realm on realm,
cleaving to none as to a home,
the world of spirit wishes not to fetter us
but raise us higher, step by step.
Scarce in some safe accustomed sphere of life
have we establish a house, then we grow lax;
only he who is ready to journey forth
can throw old habits off.

Maybe death’s hour too will send us out new-born
towards undreamed-lands,
maybe life’s call to us will never find an end
Courage my heart, take leave and fare thee well.

Hermann Hesse


And for those of you who wish to read the original German version, here it is:

Stufen

Wie jede Blüte welkt und jede Jugend
Dem Alter weicht, blüht jede Lebensstufe,
Blüht jede Weisheit auch und jede Tugend
Zu ihrer Zeit und darf nicht ewig dauern.
Es muß das Herz bei jedem Lebensrufe
Bereit zum Abschied sein und Neubeginne,
Um sich in Tapferkeit und ohne Trauern
In andre, neue Bindungen zu geben.
Und jedem Anfang wohnt ein Zauber inne,
Der uns beschützt und der uns hilft zu leben.

Wir sollen heiter Raum um Raum durchschreiten,
An keinem wie an einer Heimat hängen,
Der Weltgeist will nicht fesseln uns und engen,
Er will uns Stuf´ um Stufe heben, weiten.

Kaum sind wir heimisch einem Lebenskreise
Und traulich eingewohnt, so droht Erschlaffen,
Nur wer bereit zu Aufbruch ist und Reise,
Mag lähmender Gewöhnung sich entraffen.
Es wird vielleicht auch noch die Todesstunde
Uns neuen Räumen jung entgegensenden,
Des Lebens Ruf an uns wird niemals enden ...
Wohlan denn, Herz, nimm Abschied und gesunde !

Hermann Hesse

Wechseljahre

I was talking to a friend this afternoon about matters of growing up (my daughter) and growing old (me). We were discussing whether my daughter’s yearning to experience something new is stronger than those of mine for something different in my life.

So many of the women I know, who are my age, are asking themselves, “What next?” or “Is this it?” In German, the word for menopause in “Wechseljahre”. This is interesting because the word’s literal translation is then years to shift, alternate, replace, modify.

In my imagination I see menopause as a pause or a suspension: perhaps from being young. Whereas, once again in my imagination, I see “Wechseljahre” as years of transition or modification. Somehow it seems much more loving.

I know my German friends, particularly Tine and Susanne, are probably shaking their heads at this linguistically wild interpretation. For, undoubtedly, menopause is menopause whatever the language, and not weighted with any positive or loving connotations. Still, it nice to live under the illusion.

Language

A few weeks ago my daughter and I travelled down to visit friends in southern Germany. A train official in Hamburg was announcing the departures and arrivals of the trains every few minutes over the intercom system. At one point I turn to my daughter and ask her what other language the official is speaking besides German. In my ears, it sounded like Dutch, but I couldn’t figure out why the woman would be speaking Dutch.

My daughter looked over at me and rolled her eyes, “It’s English, mom.” How could the language be English if I didn’t understand a word of it? My daughter patiently explained that it was the type of English she is taught every day in school.

A friend of a friend’s daughter, who speaks perfect English at home with her British parents, apparently speaks German-school-English when she is in the classroom. “Tvinkel, tvinkel, leetil star…” her daughter sings at home, rehearsing for the Christmas concert. The girl’s mother runs out of the room suppressing a scream and laughter; she doesn’t know which.

Most, nearly all, English teachers in the schools are German. Some of them studied decades ago and have not immersed themselves in an English-speaking culture since. Some teachers, especially grade school teachers, teach English without being able to speak anything but the most rudimentary English. The school board introduced English into the grade schools without insuring proper instruction for the teachers.

The German train company and the grade schools should be commended for making an attempt to introduce English into their services. I shouldn’t laugh, but it is hard not to, when what comes out is undecipherable.

Yet, the train officials and grade school teachers should be commended; for they’ve been given a task they have no qualification for. Can you imagine being asked to read out a text in a foreign language, whose pronunciation you do not know? Daunting. Do the officials and teachers accepting this task do so because they have very little inhibitions, or do they overestimate their knowledge of the language, or do they just hope that practice will make perfect?

The Danes Are So Smart

Living in northern Germany has its perks (no, we are not talking about the weather). One of which, is the close proximity to Denmark. Wonderful country, wonderful folk… I’ve known this for a while.

I didn’t know how smart they were, until a dear friend of mine explained the Danish words for grandma and grandpa:

• farfar is father’s father
• farmor is father’s mother
• morfar is mother’s mother
• mormor is mother’s mother

This way, every grandparent has his or her own distinct claim to a name. How smart is that?

Does anyone know if this is the case in any other language?

Langweile

In German “Langweile“ means boredom. The roots are Lange- long, and weilen- to tarry. If you believe, like I do, that it is important to experience idleness to be creative, it becomes apparent why it is important for children to occasionally experience “Langeweile”, or boredom. It is their form of idleness and in order to overcome its inertia, they have to come up with something better. Take note parents of the world: “I’m bored” is just the early stage of creative play.