Ich kann Deutsch... Maybe

A lot of people have the impression that doing one year abroad will magically make you fluent. Now, I can't deny that there is a significant learning curve, but as with anything that must be practiced, you have a hard time noticing it yourself. A lot of people, myself included, often feel frustrated in the first few (or more) months because you're not progressing by the leaps and bounds you expected. I've met quite a few people who are native speakers of English but have lived in Germany for a long time. When I hear them speak with ease and fluency I have two immediate reactions:

1. If they can do it, so can I! There is hope for me yet!

2. Why is my German not that good? It's not even close!!

Then I have to remind myself that these people have all been here for several several years (some for more than half their life). Now, does that mean that once I've been here for x number of years I'll suddenly speak perfectly fluent German? No. But it does mean that learning a language takes time and you have to be patient.

I feel like there are certain steps, or a certain process you go through when learning a language abroad:

1. Embarrassment - suddenly all those years learning grammar and vocab seem useless because you realize, even though you can write a 4 page essay analyzing a book, you can't form simple everyday sentences like "where do I take the recycle?"
2. Absorption - you're convinced that since you don't feel confident enough to speak, you will magically absorb fluency merely by listening to other people speak. Give yourself a pat on the back, you can understand other people speak. But can you form your own thoughts?
   
3. Obligation - you still don't feel confident in your language abilities, but your apartment is starting to stink because you haven't taken out the trash in weeks, thereby forcing you figure out that even if you don't know the right words, you can still get your point across
4. Responsiveness - You ditch the glazed eyes and stupid smile for actual words when people speak to you, but you still don't actively go out looking for it
5. Enthusiasm - OMG, people understand you and you can ask questions and who cares if you put the wrong adjective ending on this, you want to speak more!! SPEAK SPEAK SPEAK!
6. Total lack of shame - Once you've reached this point, there is nothing standing in the way between you and total fluency. Oh, except a better accent, larger vocabulary and correct grammar. But who cares, right? You're never going to learn if you don't speak, so congratulations, you've lost all shame for your language mistakes - and really, that's the best thing that could have happened to you

I had a teacher who used to tell us it's better to make mistakes, because if you always did everything perfectly you would never learn. Everyday I believe it more and more. Of course, throughout this whole process, you are picking up new vocabulary, strengthening your grammar and acquiring a better accent - which really is the ultimate goal, but half the battle is the mental preparation.