Wednesday, February 25, 2015

I thought I was hot stuff 'til I cooled down

I stopped by the bakery and spoke German with lady working there. I did the whole thing in German and she answered in German.

Whoa, I thought.

Maybe this is going really well. She hasn't switched to English. Rock on. Dang, I'm doing well today.

Then, as I was ready to pay, she told me that my German was good.  

Oh.

She said that she wasn't sure if I wanted to speak English or not but figured that I must have wanted to practice my German so she continued in German.

Oh.

Sigh.

Back to the drawing board class for me.



[Though I am thankful for her kindness and thoughtfulness, I am sad that my German is still so weak that people's first thought is to switch to English.]





4 comments:

  1. That doesn't mean your German is weak. There is little chance you'll ever lose your accent enough that Germans won't detect it. They're good at that - even among themselves. My husband can listen to a few lines someone speaks on TV and tell me where he's from in Germany, or at least roughly the area. I give myself away by saying any word with an R in it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. yea I wouldn't worry either. I've lived here nearly 5 years and I still get people in shops/cafes etc answering me in english, which can be really frustrating! I think Germans just love to practice their english any chance they get!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This made me laugh. Soon enough you will get it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. That darn "r"! Oh well, we always have "squirrel."

    ReplyDelete