The Exquisite German Language

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Okay, so some of you could say that I've been ignoring my blog lately and well I guess you would be right (hey atleast I'm honest!). So please forgive and I'll try to update you on some of the more exciting aspects of my life here right now. As well, seeing as how I'm also assuming you're all going to visit me at some point I think it's very important that I continue on with "Germafying" all of you with a lesson in the exquisite art that is the german language. And yes, I did just make up Germafying but I'm alone in a foreign so give me a break!

Well let's start off with the basics (cause frankly that's all I know! ha)
Ich bin Shannon und Ich komme aus Kanada. This is a phrase that I use frequently when meeting new people or when people are giving me weird looks at parties because I'm speaking english in a room full of germans.

Wie geht's dir? (How are you?) Apparently the one phrase that I say that actually makes me sound german. I must say this about twenty times a day at school to people I know often getting a chuckle out of the other person or "Oh wow!" as in oh wow that was surprisingly not terrible. And of course to answer you would say "Mir geht's gut und dir?" (I am good and you?) Also another phrase I've mastered!

Ein Bissen (A bit) This could actually be considered my catch phrase here because I must use it atleast once a day. It's my standard answer to questions like Do you speak any german? Ein Bissen Do you understand any german? Ein Bissen.

Guten Morgen- (Good Morning) You can either say Guten Morgen or just Morgen when you greet someone in the morning, or for added german affect you can drag out the word like the kids in my class. It would go something like this chipper teacher enters the class "Guten Morgen!" and sleepy students "Morrggeenn"
Guten Abend- (Good Evening)
Guten Nacht- (Good Night) or Schlaft gut! I hear this a lot from my host mom because she always catches me randomly sleeping during the day and finds it quite funny.

Some of my personal favourites:
Entschuldigung (Excuse me) Often used when you've accidently bumped someone in a crowed bus, are late for your class or thrown in randomly in english conversations for comic effect because it's just so darn fun to say.
Bitte (Please) Both myself and another exchange student from Nevada are convinced that we can get what we want if we say bitte in a cute "I'm foreign I need your help/want something" voice. In my experience so far it's worked every time.
Genau (Exactly) Also pretty fun to say and of course useful.

Essentials for an exchange student:
Ich habe Hunger (I am hungry) For some reason or another I'm generally hungry all the time. Other exchange students could back me up on that I'm sure.
Ich bin müde (I am tired) Also generally true about 90 percent of the time.
Mir ist kalt ( I am cold) And no, just because I'm Canadian doesn't mean I'm somehow immune to the cold. I don't have some sort of extra Canadian layer of skin that protects me from being cold, I still feel it and I still hate it. Enough said.

Oh! I'd also like to share with you some of the stellar questions I've been asked about Canada:
Do the leaves change colour in Canada like they do here?
Do you have chinese food restaurants in Canada?
Oh you live on the east coast, isn't that close to Vancouver?
One of my personal favourites: Me- I live in Riverview, New Brunswick. An American- Yeah but what province?

So I hope you enjoyed your first crash course in the German language. As hard as it is to learn a new language, everyone that I've met here has been really nice and eager for me to learn german, particularly my friends at school. I plan on changing host families in three weeks so I'm pretty anxious and excited for that. As well, I started playing basketball at school the last couple of weeks and I really enjoy it. I'm usually the only girl there but I really don't mind because I'm more than able to keep up with the guys and they're all nice and just out to have a good time. Because of my lack of german though, the coach usually speaks to me in french and then the guys usually speak to me in english and then they all speak to each other in german so it's quite the experience language wise! I've been trying to set up a couple of trips with friends so that I can have some things to look forward to, so far I'm planning to go to Frankfurt around Christmas time, Denmark around January/February and then my friend from Nevada and I are talking about Venice with her host mom (we'll see about that one though!)

I hope that everyone is having a good time back home! I'd love to hear what everyone has been up to so leave a comment on here or email [e-mail].
Dankeschon for reading my blog!
Tschüss!

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Comments

[Laura (your fellow Canadian in Germany)]

I know! Why does everyone think I'm from Vancouver?! Sorry..I'm on the opposite coast. Also..an Australian asked me if it's true Canada has a lot of pot. And..that was followed by an American saying ''i know pot's legal in Canada, right?'' Um..no.