Kyle’s European Adventure

Today was the end of my first week in German classes. Thankfully, I survived, though my belief that my brain is not cut out for learning languages was reinforced. I was in the most beginner level of German, and I was only marginally better than some of the people in the class. This, from someone who studied German for YEARS, and who spent the two months prior to my travels working with a German tutor. 

I’m hopeless.

After class, a big group of students went to get coffee together, to bid farewell to those who were returning to their home countries. We sat around, making jokes about languages and talking about our home countries, and it hit me: while the whole group was speaking in English, I was the only American, and the only person there for whom English was my native language. Everyone else already spoke at least two languages. 

As one of them joked: 

“What is the word for someone who only speaks one language?”

“AN AMERICAN!”

Ouch.

Anyhow, next week’s classes switch to the morning, so I will have my afternoons off again to resume my explorations of the city.