The final countdown: Fünf Tage

und jetzt geht's weiter mit...

Things I've learned during my Fulbright year:
#10 - a lot about the English Language
#9 - There is such a thing as too much free time
#8 - Riding a bike in the snow can be dangerous
#7 - Missing your last train isn't always a bad thing
#6 - how to not be a student
#5 - German

I mean, I am living in Germany and my aim in coming here was to improve my German... But whether or not my language skills have actually improved since September, I've definitely gotten a lot more comfortable with speaking. And that is the number one thing I tell my students: the main point is to just speak. 
 
At the beginning of the year, if I didn't know how to say something, I would quietly dismiss it, then look it up later - at which point it was pointless because I didn't need to say it anymore. These days, I've become a lot more comfortable just saying "wait, how do you say this?" or "is this the right word?"
 
Of course, where I'm living (you know, Franken, we've talked about this before), there is a fairly strong dialect (Fränkisch), so understanding the locals can be challenging at times (especially old people!), and some words/pronunciations I've picked up over the year will probably be completely useless once I move away. But, it is definitely much closer to "real" German than what I learned in Switzerland (where, for example, I spent a year calling a bike, which is "Fahrrad" in German, a "Velo"). 
  
Earlier this year I posted a list of 6 steps of language acquisition while living abroad, and I have to say, I really think I've made it to step 6 (complete lack of shame). So although I still have a long way to go to fluency (a looooong way), I have pretty much lost all shame for making mistakes - and really, that's the best place for any language student to get (and it only took 7 years).