It is impossible to know where to begin. Maybe I should start with the reasoning behind the title I have chosen for this blog. In german, "Ich spreche kein deutsch" means "I don't speak German". This is both my anthem and my cry. I utter this phrase at least 10-20 times a day: to strangers on the street, to people I'm introduced to, to people I've had the opportunity to play sports with. Every counter, every desk I approach is greeted first with either a just-learned and then garbled german phrase or this anthem. I spent the first two days not even translating this message correctly before spending the third repeating it to myself a thousand times on my borrowed bike. "Ich spreche kein deutsch" I say to this country. I'm here anyway and I'm learning as absolutely fast as I can. I hope it is enough.
I guess this would be a good time to explain my predicament and how I came to be here. In the first few days of the new year 2013 I was sitting at the kitchen table at the house on Foxley Way. The glitter and cheer of Christmas as well as the exultation of a fresh start upon us had been closed upon until next year. Although the bitter froth of a long-ago sipped beer still hung in my mouth, the rest of winter and a difficult semester lay ahead. To cut through the adjectives, descriptors, and other fluff I added to the previous sentence, I was worried for the coming spring and even for the coming summer. Where was I going in these coming semesters and how could I start to plan now? I knew that the spring would be difficult and busy, but the summer! What to do then? I mused for a day or two before musing upon the subject of European travel. I googled "Internships in Europe". First answer : "RISE: Internships in Germany". SKIP, I thought to myself. I don't speak any german. To make a long story short, I ended up changing my mind, applying, and getting the job. And NO GERMAN REQUIRED!
After the usual tilt of the head and the typical mental click, most germans respond to my anthem with a kind word, a re utterance of their previous statement in english, or sometimes just a "Sorry!". I have learned quickly that germans are friendly by association only. As long as you are a friend of their friend, you are welcome. If you are a stranger, you are for the most part excluded or otherwise ignored. I have found that the people I most value now are those that are quick with an introduction. It goes a long way with the germans. After an introduction I always get the same two questions: 1) Where are you from? (Atlanta. Remember the 1996 Olympics? Usher? It's near to Alabama like "Sweet Home Alabama") 2 ) What are you doing here in Giessen? (I'm a Biology Student doing an internship working in a lab.) That's typically the end of it unless they really have an intention of meeting someone new. And herein lies the rub. I'm working in a biology lab here in Giessen, a mid-sized city about 30 minutes by train outside of Frankfurt. It's smackdab in the middle of Germany and houses about 30,000 students. The lab I'm working in studies the ion channels in frog lungs and the way that they respond to mechanostimuali under different conditions. Everyone in my lab speaks passable english, mostly of scientific terminology of which they use the most. It is interesting to see how we struggle to communicate about subjects such as cooking or playing a sport but are completely in sync over topics like gap junctions or vapor pressure. I've been set up in a student apartment just outside of downtown and live on a hall comprised entirely of people who speak english as a second language. Two of them speak german and french. Two speak german and english. One speaks turkish, german, and english. Another german and arabic. A girl speaks german, french, portugese, and spanish.
I am the only one who speaks a single language on the floor. It is the same in my lab and at the grocery store.
It feels like I missed some class in school. When they were teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic, apparently I skipped class and missed arithmetic. Or maybe I was in class but it was a fool and counted the clouds outside the window.
I am hopeful that I will make the best of my experience here in Germany. But it a curious experience I have never had. To be without the words, or maybe just the lack of pride, to approach a stranger and say "I am a bit lost. Not just in the city but in this country. Would you like to please stop and talk awhile?"
At the lab, on the field, and in a group, I am the joke. The silly American with his single language. His sole tool; that and PATIENCE. They say "look how he will stand there and wait until we speak english again!".
Thusfar I'm not sure if I am better because of my patience and my willingness to plunge into this unknown. Or am I the man who couldn't swim but jumped into the lake anyway?
