Mein Erster Tag in Der Schule/ My first day at school
Posted by Michele Barber on Monday, September 10, 2012
Wow! What a morning--Alles in Deutsch...Alles! (all in German...all!) I came out of class exhausted! The top four words to describe my morning would be angst (or anxiety), accomplishment, fighting and Pain (which is a story all of itself). Despite the fact that three of the four words I've used are negative, today was not bad....just stressful. There is even a GREAT moment of humor in this day. Although at the time, I was not laughing....just beet red. Ach!
So Ill start with the word Angst. this morning I got up to the feeling of anxiety as I knew today would be all German and I would either sink like a bolder or swim. Guess what?! I didn't sink. I was able to swim! But I must say it was more like dog paddling. I understood 80% of what the instructor said. Yea! But only after much fighting through the language. It was very comforting to know that there were 15 other students in class who felt the same way as I did. While I was the only one with the "deer in the headlights" look on my face, you could tell many of the others were stressing along with me. The teacher and the receptionists all know me by first name. That would be due to the "deer in the headlights" look that I have on my face every time I've been to the school. I hope that this goes away some day....sooner rather than later.
I thought this picture pretty much accurately depicted my Angst
I was so happy to see Hunter out in the hallway after class. He was a welcoming sight to see! It was so wonderful to see another English speaker in the building! I almost cried on his shoulder of shear relief from class being over. I didn't. Instead, I went in search of some comfort food. Anything American which wound up being McDonalds. I went in and ordered a Menu item: sandwich, large fries....and yes....large coke. I figured if I was going for comfort food.....from McDonalds? yes, from Mcdonalds......I might as well go for the caffeinated soda. I sat down and drowned my stress in good ole American burger, fries and coke. Ach! I can not do this every day. If I do, I will turn out to be Two-Ton-Tessie by the time class is over!
The next word is fighting. I will divide this into two sections. The first is the competition going on in the classroom. My peers were competing to out show the other person in knowledge. My whole reaction to that was "Really folks?! Come on....we are here to learn stop being childish." Then I remembered that I am in Europe, they grew up in a school system that was very competitive. It was all about who could give the right answer first and get the teacher's praise. So, yes, really. Ach. I guess I'll be the "dumm Americanerin" in class. That is absolutely okay with me. My goal is not to compete with my peers and outshine them. My goal is to make a good grade. At one point, the teacher actually called the class down and told them to be quiet. :) Yes, German school is going to be an experience for me. The second part to the fighting is just fighting through the translation part to understand what is being said. I took many notes today. And when that "deer in the headlights" look turned to sheer panic, the teacher would ask, "Sie Verstehen, Michele?/ Do you understand, Michele?" To which I'd reply Nein/no. The instructor would take the time to explain. Danke Gott for such an understanding Lehrerin! (that would be genglish...German and English mixed together)
On to the word accomplishment. I survived my first day! I not only survived, but I understood what the teacher was saying. I didn't just understand my teacher, I carried on a basic conversation with one of my peers! yea! Oh, but it was so draining. The lady who was sitting next to me is from Belarus. She is taking German so that she can talk to her boyfriend. Right now they try speaking English to one another-which they both know very little of...according to her. He is German. She wants to move permanently to Germany. The hope is to marry her boyfriend in the future after she learns German. Wow! I am so glad Hunter was/is an English speaker and I did not have to learn a new language just to get to know him better and marry him.
At this point, I'd like to just spend a minute saying that this class addresses many of the learning styles. I do like this. We had book work, group work and even some hands on activities. So, it was not like we sat all morning long. that was good. We threw a ball to one another for telling who we were, what country we were from, and where we lived. Just to name one active activity.
The last word pain. I am sure by now you are wondering what was so painful in all this. Well let me explain. This story actually goes back to one week ago where I ran into the wall and hurt my shoulder. So, how does one run into the wall ad hurt their shoulder? Well...only I can do that. See, as I was walking down the circular staircase with the vacuum cleaner in hand, I got too close to the wall and just ran into it with my right arm/shoulder. Which seems to have done quiet a bit of harm to the shoulder area. I was hoping that my shoulder would heal in a week, but alas it has not. And today did not help the shoulder at all. As I stressed, I carried all that stress in my shoulders. I was so tense and I was constantly reminding myself to relax the shoulders. Then before I knew it, I'd have my arms close into me and tight as could be. So, that is how my first day of class was painful. Tomorrow I'll have to work on not carrying the stress in my shoulders.
Now the funny part of class. Yes, you are allowed to roll with laughter and guffaw as loudly as you want. Because, now as I look back at it, it is rather funny. So, we were saying our German ABCs and we'd repeated this multiple times to get the right sounds out of our mouths, when the teacher asked us to turn to one another and spell our names. So, I did. I turned to my neighbor and began spelling my name M-I-C-D-E-L-E. You know D comes after C but before E. (a,b,c,d,e) My peer got the most peculiar look on her face and then picked up my name tag and said nein!/no! To which I responded, "Was?/What?" As I looked at it. I became mortified. I'd just misspelled my name! She is just laughing so hard and all I could do is smile and correct myself. Mistakes we make. Only I would misspell my name!
Hope you enjoyed this entry! Have a great day! I'll let you know how the week ends. Have a wonderful week! Now to finish up my 3 hours of hausaufgaben/homework.
So Ill start with the word Angst. this morning I got up to the feeling of anxiety as I knew today would be all German and I would either sink like a bolder or swim. Guess what?! I didn't sink. I was able to swim! But I must say it was more like dog paddling. I understood 80% of what the instructor said. Yea! But only after much fighting through the language. It was very comforting to know that there were 15 other students in class who felt the same way as I did. While I was the only one with the "deer in the headlights" look on my face, you could tell many of the others were stressing along with me. The teacher and the receptionists all know me by first name. That would be due to the "deer in the headlights" look that I have on my face every time I've been to the school. I hope that this goes away some day....sooner rather than later.
I thought this picture pretty much accurately depicted my Angst
I was so happy to see Hunter out in the hallway after class. He was a welcoming sight to see! It was so wonderful to see another English speaker in the building! I almost cried on his shoulder of shear relief from class being over. I didn't. Instead, I went in search of some comfort food. Anything American which wound up being McDonalds. I went in and ordered a Menu item: sandwich, large fries....and yes....large coke. I figured if I was going for comfort food.....from McDonalds? yes, from Mcdonalds......I might as well go for the caffeinated soda. I sat down and drowned my stress in good ole American burger, fries and coke. Ach! I can not do this every day. If I do, I will turn out to be Two-Ton-Tessie by the time class is over!
The next word is fighting. I will divide this into two sections. The first is the competition going on in the classroom. My peers were competing to out show the other person in knowledge. My whole reaction to that was "Really folks?! Come on....we are here to learn stop being childish." Then I remembered that I am in Europe, they grew up in a school system that was very competitive. It was all about who could give the right answer first and get the teacher's praise. So, yes, really. Ach. I guess I'll be the "dumm Americanerin" in class. That is absolutely okay with me. My goal is not to compete with my peers and outshine them. My goal is to make a good grade. At one point, the teacher actually called the class down and told them to be quiet. :) Yes, German school is going to be an experience for me. The second part to the fighting is just fighting through the translation part to understand what is being said. I took many notes today. And when that "deer in the headlights" look turned to sheer panic, the teacher would ask, "Sie Verstehen, Michele?/ Do you understand, Michele?" To which I'd reply Nein/no. The instructor would take the time to explain. Danke Gott for such an understanding Lehrerin! (that would be genglish...German and English mixed together)
On to the word accomplishment. I survived my first day! I not only survived, but I understood what the teacher was saying. I didn't just understand my teacher, I carried on a basic conversation with one of my peers! yea! Oh, but it was so draining. The lady who was sitting next to me is from Belarus. She is taking German so that she can talk to her boyfriend. Right now they try speaking English to one another-which they both know very little of...according to her. He is German. She wants to move permanently to Germany. The hope is to marry her boyfriend in the future after she learns German. Wow! I am so glad Hunter was/is an English speaker and I did not have to learn a new language just to get to know him better and marry him.
At this point, I'd like to just spend a minute saying that this class addresses many of the learning styles. I do like this. We had book work, group work and even some hands on activities. So, it was not like we sat all morning long. that was good. We threw a ball to one another for telling who we were, what country we were from, and where we lived. Just to name one active activity.
The last word pain. I am sure by now you are wondering what was so painful in all this. Well let me explain. This story actually goes back to one week ago where I ran into the wall and hurt my shoulder. So, how does one run into the wall ad hurt their shoulder? Well...only I can do that. See, as I was walking down the circular staircase with the vacuum cleaner in hand, I got too close to the wall and just ran into it with my right arm/shoulder. Which seems to have done quiet a bit of harm to the shoulder area. I was hoping that my shoulder would heal in a week, but alas it has not. And today did not help the shoulder at all. As I stressed, I carried all that stress in my shoulders. I was so tense and I was constantly reminding myself to relax the shoulders. Then before I knew it, I'd have my arms close into me and tight as could be. So, that is how my first day of class was painful. Tomorrow I'll have to work on not carrying the stress in my shoulders.
Now the funny part of class. Yes, you are allowed to roll with laughter and guffaw as loudly as you want. Because, now as I look back at it, it is rather funny. So, we were saying our German ABCs and we'd repeated this multiple times to get the right sounds out of our mouths, when the teacher asked us to turn to one another and spell our names. So, I did. I turned to my neighbor and began spelling my name M-I-C-D-E-L-E. You know D comes after C but before E. (a,b,c,d,e) My peer got the most peculiar look on her face and then picked up my name tag and said nein!/no! To which I responded, "Was?/What?" As I looked at it. I became mortified. I'd just misspelled my name! She is just laughing so hard and all I could do is smile and correct myself. Mistakes we make. Only I would misspell my name!
Hope you enjoyed this entry! Have a great day! I'll let you know how the week ends. Have a wonderful week! Now to finish up my 3 hours of hausaufgaben/homework.