June 7 2012

Today was a long day in classes. We had class until 2:30pm with Frau Schimmelpfennig and then our hour and a half class with Kelly. With Frau Schimmelpfennig we went over what our big project is going to be, I don’t fully understand all the instructions which may be a problem but between everyone in the class we may be able to piece it together.  We also began a mini project of a biography on Martin Luther, which will turn into a skit we do for the other group. They did theirs for us before we finished class. In Kelly’s class we went over imperatives and subjunctive, which has the same endings as the simple past (präteritum) so it was like double review for the time.

After class was over we went to the Irish Harp Pub and some of us got drinks and we people watched and discussed the day. I think the little interactions with people are far more useful than anything else. They reinforce everything we learn throughout the day. And because it is a “normal” situation you don’t think about it as school or learning or stressful, it is just what you have to do to interact in a foreign language.

English Stammtisch was tonight. Tim, Jennifer, Simonne, and I went and I spoke with a professor from MSU with whom I had a Latin class. It was interesting to watch the various interactions since some of the people there were ex-pats and some were Germans who just wanted to work on their English. It may not have helped with our Deutsche but I think it is culturally relevant perhaps.

After that I ran into Kelly at the Leucorea and we ended up talking with one of the guys who is working in the Luther Hochzeit. Kelly really talked to him but I could listen and I think all of this week has really helped me understand better. When some of his friends came over and they were talking the dialect was much harder to understand which I thought was really interesting. They also talked much faster together than when it was just Kelly and I. They were all very polite and seemed only to want to talk a little.

Words:

Schlimm: Bad, difficult

Ablasshandel: Indulgences/ Forgiveness papers
Vulkan (m) (-s;-e) = volcano,
Halter (m) (-s) = holder, rack,
beantworten = answer