Just kid-ding around in German

I recently attended a dinner out with a group. One lady brought her grandkid.  No one was speaking with him at one point so I thought I'd be polite and have a chat in German. It worked out great; he was easy to understand, spoke at a slower speed, and didn't use big words. Basically, it's what I really need from my adult friends who speak German with me!


I asked the kid about school and that was interesting too. He's only 9 but the next year or two in school are important ones. Basically, it's at that point when he'll get put onto the next educational track. He wants to go to Gymnasium (college prep high school) but isn't sure if his grades are good enough. It's such an interesting difference here; I don't really remember caring about my grades until I was in high school but here kids care much younger because their grades and aptitude determine if they'll go to a college prep high school or attend vocational training. One's life trajectory is somewhat mapped out before one's even a teenager here.

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I also got some teasing in. The group was a mix of Americans and Germans. One American asked about Hexennacht, 30 April, when some kids play pranks and commit (usually) small acts of vandalism. She said that her neighbor's tree was toilet papered.

I leaned over to the German guy I had been conversing and laughing with earlier. Winking, I told him, "the Americans get upset when their trees get toilet papered. The Germans take the paper down, dry it out, and reuse it."

He laughed and said that they also would iron it and be happy because they just saved some money.


For the record: I don't tease people like this unless it seems that they're open to it :)

My week: August 30 ed.

This was a week for friends and for laziness. I had my tandem partner over for dinner on one evening. The next evening, I had two other friends over and they "made" me speak German most of the time. Both evenings were very enjoyable.

The rest of the week was spent in a very leisurely and lazy way. I made several after-work foraging expeditions to collect the last of the blackberries as the plants seem to be shriveling a bit now. It does seem to be the beginning of elderberry season so I've started on those too. The main problem is finding the ambition to deal with them. My freezer is packed and I haven't had motivation to make some cordials so I may have to stick them in the work freezer.

During the weekend, I took some bike rides, picked more berries, visited the Gartenschau, and wandered around downtown. I also ate dinner at Safari with my German friends and they "forced" me to speak German again, for about 75% of the time. I laughed because as I was whinging about having to speak German, my friend asked me if it was because I had a headache (this has been a truthful excuse of mine before). No, but I did tell him that it would give me a headache.

Despite that, we continued and it was good for me. I'm usually fine with involved conversations with one speaking partner, but it was a bit hard to follow with three other people and complex stories. We even started talking about behaviorism and animal training techniques because S is a psychologist. I did have to switch to English at that point since I don't know those words.

S and I started talking about the language around Stuttgart, which is Schwaben, which is where she's from. I told her the story of how I went to the garden party in a Stuttgart and this guy had such a strong accent. However, he had also enjoyed quite a few beers so I couldn't tell if he was drunk, Schwäbisch, or both! She thought that was funny.

It was a peaceful and relaxing week. Heck, it was a "slow living" kind of week where I didn't do much rushing around, other than getting the food and house in order to have friends over. I'm glad to have this time because September will herald another 9 months of  a packed schedule as German classes resume. 

More on the German educational system

I've previously written about the German educational system, focusing mostly on Gymnasium, Realschule, and the like. I wrote a bit more about the university system here.


Young Germany recently posted a really informative article about it here, if you want to read more.


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These are just my thoughts on the educational system in Germany. I am not an expert, nor have I actually studied here myself. I've asked my friends for information. I know university students, researchers/PhD candidates, and a professor.

Whoa, can I eat this right now?!

I was picking some blackberries today and some gangly, goofy teenage boys wandered by.

"Are those berries?" they asked me.

No, they're basketballs, I wanted to say. However, that would sound mean and I harbored no ill will toward the boys so I told them yes.

Super eager kid climbed into the berry patch and asked me if he could eat some berries, "like now."

I told him that if he was hungry, of course.

He dug in and gave some to his friend. "Whoa, this would make really good lemonade!" he exclaimed.

I tried not to laugh since lemons are what make lemonade and I think he really meant juice. However, to be fair, there is lemonade with other juices added, so why not.

"Thank you, ma'am!" as he left. As if it weren't already apparent, he's a military kid.

The kids cracked me up. You'd think they had never seen wild berries before! To be fair, maybe they haven't. Then I thought of my experience and realized that I've never really paid attention to them before moving here (where they're abundant; thank you Pfälzerwald!) so it's not as if I had really seen any either. I've obsessively researched edible plants in books and online in the last several months and I've learned much since then (with more to go!). We all have to start somewhere and it's fun to see people start to really notice the nature around them.

Moo the kid

You know how (human) kids are sometimes riled up after guests leave and don't want to go to bed? Well, I invited a friend for dinner. She fed Moo a bunch of treats then left. Afterward he was riled up and mooing outside my door. Naughty kitty!

Starting on German B2

My next class for German won't start for a while yet but my tandem partner and I finally had the brilliant idea that we'll begin work on the B2 book. I hadn't thought to ask her to teach me before, but it's a great idea; she's taught a nephew German before and she teaches other subjects too. She is very educated, knows German grammar well, and speaks excellent hochdeutsch.

I was a bit worried that it might be asking a lot to have her teach me. However, she had a great idea and it makes the situation feel more equitable: after I do an exercise, she will then translate it from German to English. I'll help with the nuances and grammar in English so we're both learning. It worked great for us, and I even assigned her some homework ;)

As I was flipping through my B2 book, I was surprised that the material seems mostly be a review of what we learned in B1. It does go more in depth on some of the rules and I'll welcome the opportunity to review more before I take the B2 language exam.

So, for those who've completed B2 - what are your thoughts? Is it a lot of review or are there new grammar concepts?

My week: August 23 ed.

The theme of this week was: More Foraging! It was also an opportunity to introduce someone else to foraging since I had a house guest. I've foraged so many blackberries that my freezer is just about bursting with the fruits of my labor (har har).

I asked my guest what he wanted to do. I suggested foraging and a bike ride around town. He agreed and we grabbed my bikes, heading off to the berry patch. As a light rain fell, we picked berries. I told him how the other guys had climbed the tree to pick Mirabellen for me but I was a bit horrified, worrying if they'd fall out of the tree. He thought that was amazing so climbed up the tree himself to get Mirabellen! Not to sound like a nervous Nelly or anything, but I'd feel so guilty if anyone fell out of the tree when trying to help me.

All was well and we toured town with my bike pannier stuffed with fruit. My guest was absolutely thrilled; he kept thanking me for the wonderful night out in nature. That made me smile; not too many people get excited about dodging brambles in the rain.

I went on several other berry picking expeditions during the week, listening to the new Tunde Olaniran album as I did so (it is excellent). After picking the berries, I froze them in a single layer pan and then threw them into a bag in the freezer to keep them.

On the weekend, I joined my friend D on a trip to the Wildpark Betzenberg in the eastern edge of Kaiserslautern. It's exactly what it sounds like: a park, full of wild animals, in the woods. There is no entry fee and no gate, for that matter; just walk along the paths to the pens.

A previous coworker had visited the park and swore that the "wildcat" was just a house cat they stuck in a pen. For some reason, I thought that was hilarious, imagining that the previous wildcat died and someone said, "oh, let's grab our cat Karl and stick him in. No one will notice."

Yes, that's completely silly, but it is striking how similar the wildcats are to regular domestic cats. In one cage, there was a momma and her kitten. He teased her, pouncing on her tail. He was a cute little scamp! I grabbed a picture of momma cat.

I really didn't do a lot this week but I definitely enjoyed relaxing, foraging, and spending time with friends.