Jawohl or not to Jawohl ?

Some of you might have noticed that I'm studying German. And that it's freakin hard. I don't recommend learning German to anyone. Not because it's not a nice language or because I don't like it personally, but because, and I repeat, it's freakin hard.

Let me tell you how things are coming along.

I started studying on my own already this summer. I borrowed a German "self-study" book from a friend of mine. It included also a CD which was both great and amusing, since the voice on the CD was that of Roman Schatz, this weirdo from Germany who currently lives in Finland and makes daring press releases that usually have some sexual point of view. So listening to a CD with Roman's voice trying to teach me how to say "sausage" in German is somewhat disturbing. Still, no worries Roman, you're alright in my book.

mom's little helper...

The problem was that the book was more for tourists, or for people who just want to learn how to order a beer and a knockwurst on their vacation in Hamburg. I craved for the grammatics, so I asked my mom to buy me a "real" German study book, the ones they use in schools and everything. It felt like Christmas (= Weihnahten)  when it arrived a couple of weeks later.

So now we were in business, I was learning all about the articles, the accusative and the dative, and wrestled with many questions that I already wrote about in my previous posting "I say tomato, you say perkele". 

I'm obviously not smart enough to learn a new language by myself just by reading a book at home. (But wouldn't it be nice though, you just sit there reading for a while, stand up, and start saying things in German). So I start taking private lessons with this nice lady who's a native German speaker. I've done about 5 lessons now, and it's going rather well.

The only problem is that I have zero patience. The fact that after 5 lessons I'm still struggling with dative makes me feel like an idiot. The fact that I understand almost everything my teacher says to me in German makes me feel a little better, but then the fact that I can't respond anything other than "ja" or "nein" makes me feel like one of the Gumbies in Monthy Python (see link).

Gumby sketch in youtube

"enough studying, more fun and games"

My mom has always been very supportive of my endeavors. I asked her to send me my German-Finnish dictionary that I had stored at their house in Finland. She couldn't find it so she bought me a new one. And not only. She also bought me a CD to listen to in the car, that would teach me various words and sayings in German while I drove around. As corny as it sounds, it's brilliant. I drive fairly well (except for when I have company in the car, that's when I turn into an incompetent idiot), so as I guide my little Nissan Micra through the hills of Veneto I'm learning useful words in German such as "blueberry" or "twin house", or "I'm allergic to wheat". Those will come in handy on your first day in Berlin now won't they. Still, it contains also stuff that's very useful, and for someone like me who learns languages by listening, it's like a gift from god. Only that it's from mom.

I also recently bought the 6th season of "How I met your mother" in German. With subtitles in English of course, otherwise I wouldn't get any of the jokes.

"ok, I give up"

My kittycat is also getting her fair share of my studying, as I decided to start talking to her in German. So I'm constantly asking her "was machst du?" and "wo gehst du?" and "mòchtest du etwas essen?". I think I'm driving her slowly mad using 3 languages with her, Italian for chit chat, German for all the various questions and Finnish for when she's done something bad and I'm cursing like, well, an angry Finnish woman.

Wanna know why I'm learning German? Not telling. Mind your own business. Still, I'll keep you updated on the progress.