On learning German

As a native English speaker, it can often be frustrating and discouraging learning a foreign language abroad. See the thing is, pretty much everyone these days knows at least a little bit (but usually a lot-a bit) of English, so it's not uncommon to encounter English on a day to day basis no matter what country you're living in. 

At first it can be really disheartening to keep getting responses in English when you want to speak German and it's quite easy to misinterpret this as an insult or some sort of negative commentary on your language abilities. Now, I can't say that I don't talk to people who really probably think "seriously, do you even know German?!" but over the past 18 months, I've learned that 9 times out of 10 an English response isn't usually a sign of your poor German, but rather the other person's interest in English. 

So, for those of you fighting the same battle and feeling increasingly more insecure about your language abilities, I've put together a little chart of some of the most common discouraging English responses, how I sometimes interpret them, and what the speaker's actual intent usually turns out to be. 

As you can see, and as I've learned (and still have to remind myself) a lot of people are excited to be able to show that they can communicate in English, or excited to have the chance to practice speaking with a native Speaker. Of course, some people really are jerks, but then you can just use big words at them. And I have to think, if the tables were turned and I was in the US and met a German speaker randomly, I would absolutely jump at the opportunity to speak German with them! 

Of course, I guess now I might be a little more sensitive to how I approach the situation, or at least preface my language switch with an "OMG! Can we speak German PLEASE! I'm really lame and love it!"

p.s. "sorry" is pretty much a legit word in German these days. People say it all the time, and it took me forever to figure out they didn't just magically know I was an English speaker!