Getting Around in English

Recently I discovered, if I don't really want to, I don't really need to speak German to anyone I meet or talk to. At the doctor's. Supermarkets. Shopping malls. Information counters. Making phone enquiries.

I simply speak English and I get the information I want back in English. I found this out one day, when I was simply too tired of using my brain to form German sentences in my head first before approaching the customer service counter. To my pleasant surprise, I got what I needed quickly, and in English! Woohoo... wonderful. I experimented again at my next opportunity. Once more, I didn't even have to use a single word of German!

And I exhausted myself mentally so much in the first six months of my life here, trying to speak broken German to everyone here.

I don't have to learn to speak if I don't want to. But do I really want that? Does not wanting to speak German limit me from establishing would-be great friendships with people who are more comfortable and/or fluent in German and less in English? Does that put a barrier between my in-laws and I from forging closer relationships? Amanda has an American friend who's been living here for 15 years and still speaks only English. Do I really want to be like her? Do I want to stand in a room full of people conversing in German while I look on, nod and smile awkwardly and not being able to contribute at all, feeling left out because I don't want to learn to speak German? I mean, I have the basics. What I need is lots of practice.

Serves me right for marrying a German, I have invited myself to more things to learn and to accomplish... before I can lead a smooth life here. When others can already jump right in and swim, I must learn how to kick and paddle and not drown. Acquiring another language is certainly not a bad thing, I guess I just have to quit resisting and start speaking in broken German without feeling embarrassed.

God is really fair. He compensates the setbacks that I face by throwing me timely opportunities to overcome my demoralised state of being. I met a German lady who speaks American English at my kungfu trial class the other evening, she told me she is giving conversational German classes every week to foreign mothers living here. The time of the class is convenient. The location is not far. The lessons are FREE. I couldn't believe my luck! Eeeeew!

Ich muss mehr Deutsch sprechen. Ich muss mit allem mehr Deutsch reden. Wünscht mir Glück!