AMD 1: Deutsch Talk with eine Deutsche

Coming into die Universität von Michigan, I knew that there was going to be a decent amount of diversity. It didn't particularly scare me because my hometown was highly diverse. Growing up, I had Freunde that were many different Nationalitäten. How fitting it was to end up living with zwei Deutschers und eins Israelischer for my freshman year. Needless to say, it's been an interesting year, thus far. Which brings me to the point of this piece. This afternoon, I decided to have a completely random chat with one of my roommates, Vannessa die Frau aus Stuttgart. Oh, and I tried my best to impress her with my developing Deutsch skills. It would be an understatement if I said there were laughs during our conversation, regardless of the fact that I was probably butchering a good deal of things that I said to this native Deutsche Frau. We discussed many things but the majority of our eins hour break concerned Vanessa’s experience transitioning over to die USA and her time over in Deustchland, of which we have brought up periodically in the past.

Vanessa’s family has lived in Deustchland for many generations. In fact, her family used to live in the same house that’s been in her family for over einhundert Jahre. Surprisingly, Vanessa has very little Deustch in her blood. She’s mostly Italian, with Französisch und Schewedisch sprinkled in. Go figure. Anyway, after we talked about her home in Deutschland for gut zwanzig minutes, I asked Vanessa about her transition to Amerika. The Frau moved hier when she was in 5th grade and did not speak any Englisch. You would never be able to tell, either. She speaks Englisch sehr gut. She told me how she had to learn to speak Englisch while her classmates took a normal Englisch class that students normally take in the States. Being a distracted and overall spacey Fräulein, Vanessa’s attention span didn’t last very long during her private lessons. From there on, Vanessa continued to joke about some of the things that she had to get used to. For instance, she said one of the first things she had to understand was forming a line in class and staying in your spot. The klein Amerikanen children would cut in front of her and she claims she had no idea what that meant. Sad, but true, I suppose. Anyway, it was an interesting discussion with my lovely roommate and I was able to practice some Deutsch on her, what more could you ask for?

Below are some pictures that go along with this reading. Also provided is a link to a rather common German song for Christmas that Vanessa tried to teach me. One might think that it’s a bit late for this. However, tis not too late. Tis simply early for next Christmas.

Yay Deustchland!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6guVKTsmmBs