Studying and living in a German-speaking country is not a completely new experience for me. However, the dialect spoken here in Frankfurt (Standard German) is much easier for me to understand compared to the dialect in Liechtenstein. To me, it sounds quite similar to the language used in educational materials and the media.

I still cannot hold conversations in this language, but I use a basic and limited form of it in my daily communications, for example, when asking for directions or ordering food. I can understand the general meaning of the other person's sentences by paying attention and, of course, guessing the unknown words.

One thing that fascinates me is the brain's ability for passive learning. Sometimes I notice that I know the meaning of a word, even though I don't remember learning it before. This means I must have picked it up through immersion and guesswork, followed by validation through repetition.

Another interesting phenomenon about language learning that I stumbled upon was how it is actually harder than it looks. I think people tend to underestimate the time needed to reach a certain level. The gap between estimation and reality becomes more substantial the higher you go up the levels – A1 to A2 takes its time, while A2 to B1 takes much longer than you think.

To sum up this blog post, my relationship with German is a bit complicated! On the one hand, its daunting grammar and its vague use in my future plans have stopped me from devoting enough time to learning it. On the other hand, its beauty, which is revealed as I understand it more and more, grabs my attention and intrigues me to start learning it more seriously.