Français n'est pas simple...

As many of you know, I am here on a student visa. That means that I have to take classes at the university as part of being here. (Well, I guess I don't have to, but it would be weird not to, and it'd be a waste of tuition money not to.)

So I'm taking a French class. I've wanted to learn another language for a long time, and it's good for me to have that new-language-learner experience again, especially if I end up teaching German next year. I always said I would wait until I was done learning German to start a new language...I still wouldn't say I am done learning German, but I guess I'm feeling confident enough with my German to start a new language. So, French it is.

And it's hard. I love languages, and I want to love French, but some days it's really hard for me to love it. I try to remember back to when I started German and the struggles I had, but mostly I just remember loving it, even if I didn't know how to form the sentence properly or the right words to use. With French, I don't know how to form sentences properly or the right word for most things, but I feel like I have almost no grasp of anything. I guess I'm impatient, because I've only been at it for about two months, but still.

Here is why it is especially hard for me: The professor speaks almost exclusively in French. Now, I know that this is an excellent way to really show me how French is supposed to sound and teach me faster (or better, or something). But it's incredibly frustrating, and not only because I don't know enough French to follow about 98% of what he says, but because it's not comprehensible. I don't know if I'm extra frustrated because I studied how to be a language teacher, but in any case, I do know that if you are speaking in the target language (in this case, French) the whole time or in extremely large chunks, it has to be understandable for the learners. You can't just stand there and babble at me in French, nodding with big eyes as if I should totally get it because you just repeated yourself twice. At least I think you repeated yourself twice. Anyway, you need movements and pictures and gestures and signs. You have to dance around like a fool and point at a zillion things. You should probably not speak at the speed of a normal French person, either. Blah, it's hard!

To defend the professor a little bit, he does have good activities and lots of partner speaking things to get us using French. I like that, and I am noting all of the ideas that I like, and I often find myself thinking about how I can use them when teaching German in the future.

But I do still want to learn French, even in lieu (haha, that's a French word that we use in English!) of my frustration. I want to like it, and when I get it, I really do like it. Sadly, I generally only like it when I'm at home and when Dorina helps me...but normally not in class. And I would like to continue learning it, somehow, even after this semester is over.

But I guess, even if I'm not learning French too well in this semester, at least I'm learning how to be a better teacher.

Speaking of being a teacher...if anyone knows or hears of any jobs for German and/or English, I am officially certified and looking for a job for the 2013-2014 school year! I am willing to work in (almost) any state, Christian or public schools! Pass my name around :-)

OPI is not just nail polish...

I've been waiting to write this blog post for at least two years. And no, I haven't had a blog for that long.

For those of you that know me, if you hear the letters "OPI", you probably think of nail polish. I almost never go without my nails painted and can never seem to have enough nail polishes--so many colors--which yes, is a problem here, because I have to be able to pack my suitcase...

For those of you that know me academically, you also know that for me, OPI has another meaning. I'm not sure what OPI means for the nail polish company, but OPI also means "Oral Proficiency Interview". That has nothing to do with nail polish. For me, these three letters/words have been synonymous with anxiety, frustration, and defeat. In order to be certified to teach in the US, I need a teacher's license. In order to get a teacher's license, at least with my major and minor (German and English, respectively), I need to pass an Oral Proficiency Interview in German. To pass this test, I have to get a rating of "Advanced Low". What does that mean? Good question! It's very ambiguous and extremely confusing, but if you'd like to try to figure it out for yourself, you can look here.

I took the test a few times in the US and always got a rating of Intermediate High, which is one level below Advanced Low. It was extremely frustrating, because there was never a report of what I did wrong or what I needed to improve, and all the websites about the OPI say that there isn't really a way to prepare. They suggest immersion, but since I was living in Michigan, there were few to no opportunities for immersion in the language. They also suggest waiting longer than the minimum 90-days between retakes, and to enroll in an intensive language course if possible. I never waited (much) more than 90 days and never enrolled in an intensive language course, outside of my normal Calvin German classes. Not that I didn't try to improve; these suggestions just weren't readily accessible options for me.

Normally, if you haven't passed the OPI with an Advanced Low, you're not allowed to do student teaching, which would have been a major catastrophe for me, since I was already nearing the end of my fifth year at Calvin. Naturally, I didn't want to wait another year because of some dumb test that I hadn't passed, mostly due to a lack of confidence. (This just goes to prove how importance confidence is!) Luckily, my advisor was willing to waive that requirement for me, especially since I was already planning on going to Switzerland and would take it while over here.

After seven months of being here (almost exactly), and the necessity for a job for next year looming in the near future, my test was scheduled and paid for (thanks to Grandma Boomer, Aunt Barbara and Mom!), and I was ready. Nervous, but ready. Dorina spoke to me almost exclusively in German while we were in France, and then especially consciously when I told her that the test was scheduled and for when it was scheduled.

So, I went into school on a Friday and nervously began my conversation over the phone with a German woman. The interview is supposed to be like a normal conversation, except it's mostly the interviewer asking me questions that I respond to with as much detail as possible to show off my skills, and then there's a role-play situation in the middle, where we have to spontaneously act out a situation and solve a problem. It's somewhat awkward because it's artificial, and somewhat terrifying because you know that the person you talk to and at least two other people will be grading your conversation.

During the interview, I tried my best to just talk like I do with everyone else here in Switzerland and not think too much about what I was saying/how I was saying it (because over-thinking leads to mistakes). I did consciously try to shove in some Konjunktiv II and Relativsätze, but mostly just focused on talking as much as possible.

After the interview, I didn't know how to feel. Since I hadn't passed it so many times already, I was used to the uncertain, unhappy, over-analyzing feeling. I didn't think it went badly, but I kept replaying the conversation in my head and correcting my sentences and noticing mistakes and worrying. But I also kept remembering how impressed people were with my German from the start, how everyone has told me that my German has improved a lot since being here, and that many people can't tell where I'm from anymore when I'm speaking. But since I hadn't passed it so many times in the past, I kept quiet and worried and waited and waited and waited.

Today, I checked the website out of curiosity and impatience, and found my rating was posted: AM. I clicked on the link to download my certificate, and verify what 'AM' meant. And there, in big italic letters were the words: Advanced Mid. I did it! I passed my test, finally! And not only did I pass it, but I managed to score a level above what I needed in order to get my certification.

As cliché as it probably is, I did a happy dance. I gasped loudly and clapped my hands over my mouth. I did a happy dance again. I texted my mom to ask if she was awake and called her, attempting to hold back tears, and told her that I'd finally done it. Relief washed over me and excitement rushed through my veins. I texted a few people and told some teachers, but decided a blog post would be good to share the good news with everyone. I'm still in disbelief and keep checking to make sure it's real. And all the way to my French class at the University and all the way back home, I couldn't help but smile. A really big smile.

Today is a good day, because I've conquered the biggest mountain that I once thought was impossible.
Thank you, God! :-D

Nice, France is Nice.

Oh man. This post has been sitting in my draft box for an embarrassingly long time. I've been incredibly busy and thought about writing this practically every day, but either haven't had the time or the energy to write it. Even though it was an awesome vacation :-)

And yes, I've been planning to use my title pun since I thought about writing a post about Nice :-D (But in case you didn't know, as I also didn't know, Nice is pronounced like niece.)

For the second week of our vacation, Dorina and I flew to Nice.

Okay, so you can't exactly see the word Nice, but it's there. And you can see how far it is from Winterthur (Zürich). Far enough for warmer weather and sun!

It was Dorina's first time on a plane, which was fun to experience with her! She was so excited and nervous, and when we landed, she said she was already excited for the flight home (for the flight, not for the going home part).

We were extremely lucky, in that we found a flight and hotel, for five days total, for less than 200 CHF each! Practically unheard of! We flew in on Monday and settled into our hotel Monday night, leaving all the touristy things and exploring for the next days.

Tuesday: In the morning, we started off with breakfast in the hotel (included!)

So many options and so tasty!

Then, we started off. We planned to go to the Marc Chagall museum, but apparently it is closed on Tuesdays--what we found out, of course, only once we'd gotten there. Wednesday it is, for the museum then! So, instead we meandered back to the city and walked around a lot. It was a beautiful day, and much warmer than snowy Winterthur, so we ate lunch in a park and wrote out a couple of postcards. It was fantastic (and made me anxious for Spring back in Switzerland!)

The French kids were adorable :-)

We turned in a bit early because we were pretty tired from walking around, but made plans for the museum and old city the next day.

Wednesday: We started off, of course, with our free breakfast again and then headed out for the museum. We both knew nothing about Chagall, but it came highly recommended to us. And boy were we glad we went! He painted several paintings during WWII time that depicted religious scenes, but the paintings were colorful and bright, and they have so much more than what first meets the eye to them. We had headsets to listen to in the museum that explained the history behind the painting, as well as all the little details that he included, often connecting to his own personal life.

This was both Dorina and my favorite painting

Afterward, we went to the top of a tower or something (I've forgotten now what exactly it was) and had a breathtakingly stunning view of Nice. The Mediterranean sea, with the city, and the mountains as a backdrop--amazing.

walked back to the old city to walk around. I love old cities--the buildings, the narrow and twisty roads, the shops and apartments crammed together. All of it. We walked around for a while and then decided to buy pizza for dinner and sit on the beach to watch the sunset.

♥

Then we went home and planned for the next day.

Thursday: We started our day off again with our hotel breakfast and then headed off to Antibes for a day! 

Antibes is less than 30 minutes from Nice by train and is a small, rich, touristy town. It was another gorgeous day, so we walked around up a path to see out over the sea. Again, astonishing. (I'm running out of adjectives...) We sat at the top for a while, enjoying the sun, before heading back down in hopes of finding some sort of souvenir for our time in France. After walking for a while, we ate lunch in an adorable little restaurant in the middle of the town, and then continued our search for a souvenir. We also wandered around some smaller streets in the city, which were gorgeous and filled with apartments.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a summer home here?

We unfortunately didn't find anything and decided to head back to Nice. On our way back, however, we spotted a clothing store that intrigued us, so we went inside. After a few different clothing changes, we both found something we loved--a dress for Dorina and a skirt and sweater for me. We agreed that that would be a good souvenir (instead of something tacky).
And, since it was Valentine's day, we decided to dress up and go out for one drink before having to pack that evening.

And then early Friday, we made our way back to Winterthur. Back to the snow and the cold, and back to school on Tuesday. Nonetheless, it was a lovely vacation, enjoyed completely, and we were well-rested and relaxed for going back to school.

Das Leben der Putzfrau and Da vos tüür isch.

Phew, so much has happened in the past week!

I don't know why, but in February, we have what is called Sportferien (sport holidays). I'm not complaining, but it is a little bit strange that we have two weeks off again after only being back in school for a month. I guess it's like an extended version of the mid-winter break that we always had. :-)

So, in the first week, as usual, Dorina and I had to work at the school. Unfortunately, I came down with an exhausting, draining cold (ha, no pun intended there), so I was pretty useless. Luckily, we had some pretty awesome and motivated (read: money-motivated) students who were paired with us for all the cleaning and odd-jobs. So, with their motivation (and understanding that a sick person cleaning makes no sense), we actually finished all of the work by Wednesday.

In the middle of this cleaning, Dorina and I moved into an apartment for the next six-ish weeks. A teacher at school is on vacation for six weeks and asked if we wanted to stay in her apartment while she and her husband are away. It's a win-win situation, because she has someone to look after the apartment, and we get a chance to live in a different part of town and to live on our own. So of course, we said yes. :-)

On Friday, we took a train (or three) to Davos, Switzerland. It's about three hours by train and in the middle of the Alps. There, we stayed in the vacation apartment of our host family with one of their daughters and her friend.

Red dot = Davos; Purple dot = Winterthur; Red outline = Switzerland

Friday evening, Dorina and I watched Die Teufel trägt Prada (The Devil Wears Prada) and went to bed afterward, but the next day, alles ging los! After eating breakfast, Dorina and I bundled up (three pairs of socks each, thick sweaters, leggings, jeans, snow boots, two pairs of gloves, hats, thick scarfs, etc.), and we ventured out into the meter-high snow. It was cold, but not any colder than what I'm used to from home (between 5-14º F, depending on the time of day). We walked around the beautiful snow-covered lake and marveled over the mountains. If it were physically possible for my jaw to hit the floor, I would have had to drag it around with me. 

When it's so sunny, and you have so much clothing on, winter really isn't so bad ;-)

After a while, it started to snow, which just made it prettier

So, we walked and walked and walked through Davos, with a goal of a coffee shop and the swimming pool in mind. We eventually got to the coffee shop, but just after it had started snowing, so it was overflowing with people. We decided to hold off on the coffee (since we could go with the other two girls on Sunday), and went to the swimming pool. Probably it sounds a little funny that we wanted to go to swimming, but it's a popular thing to do here year-round. Mostly, all of it is indoors. Mostly. There was also a swimming pool outside--yep, in the middle of the snow. It was heated like a hot bath and had jets on two sides of it. We went there first and tried to find a jet to sit by, but they were all taken, so we went back inside. Later, we went back outside and got to lay on a metal chair-like thing in the water above a jet. It was like a water massage or something. I don't know...but it was awesome. The water was letting off so much steam because of the temperature difference between the water and the air, so you could barely see to the other side of the pool. After a little while, your nose and ears start to get a bit chilly, but dunking yourself under water for a few seconds does the trick, at least for a little while. At one point, it was even snowing, which made it even cooler. Eventually, we went home and spent the evening in. After packing, cleaning, a small walk around the lake, and getting coffee on Sunday, we ventured back home, all four of us packed in one car. Unfortunately, there was a LOT of traffic, so it took us three and a half-ish hours to get home, plus the train and bus from Zürich--just enough time for Dorina and I to wash our laundry, unpack, and repack for our trip to Nice, France starting the next morning.

But, more on that later...

Nice...coming soon :-)

I've gotta say, this break is turning out pretty great. Loving life :-)

Extreme Sledding

My day today started about about 5:30am. Okay, 5:45. Maybe 5:50. We all know how much I hate getting out of bed. I am just not a morning person. I never will be.

So, why did I get up at 5:45? (Okay, okay, 5:50.) I was lucky enough to spend the majority of today in the middle of some Swiss Alps. Today was the Skitag (ski day) for the Oberstufe (6-9 grades), and we were all meeting up at 6:45 to leave for the ski resort. The mountain we were to spend the day on is located in Lenzerheide, in the canton of Graubünden, which was about 2-ish hours by bus (coach bus, not city bus) from Winterthur.

As we got closer to our destination, we began to see mountains zig-zagging the skyline and mountains surrounding us as we drove. Well, they were mountains to my American eyes. According to my Swiss friend, what I was calling a mountain was just a really big hill. If it has trees up to the top, it's just a hill. My mountainless Michigan brain can't really comprehend how that isn't a mountain, too ;-)

We snaked up the mountain and piled out of the buses and inside to rent sleds, if needed. Many students brought skis or a snowboard and some brought their own sleds. I was assigned to the sledding part to keep an eye on the students, and of course, participate in the fun as well. (I did not ski or snowboard, because I have never tried either before and am not too keen on learning it in front of all the students :-P) If you've got an American brain, particularly a mountainless Michigan brain, then you might think "oh boy, sledding for five hours sounds not so fun." But you are wrong. Sledding American-style for five hours would be not so fun, but sledding Swiss-style for so long is an adventure.

First, the sleds. This is what I grew up with:

Ahh, classic!

But this is what the Swiss use:

You sit on the sled with your legs stretched out on the sides and steer by digging the heels of your feet into the snow (and leaning/pulling on the rope attached to the front helps a little bit too).

In the US, this is similar to what my sledding area looked like:

5 hours of this would be boring

But in Switzerland, the sledding looks like this:

minus the dog...

If you're thinking "that looks like a track" then you would be right. It's a special track for sledding that goes down the mountain. So, we had to take a cable car up to one part of the mountain, where we then followed the track down on our sleds (or skis/snowboard if that's the sport you chose, although the skiers/snowboarders were on a different track.)

to see this better, go here: http://www.ep-reisen.de/sites/default/files/lenzerheide_ostseite.jpg

On this map, you can see the Gondelbahn, which are the cable cars. The yellow-green-dotted track (in the middle) is the sledding track, with a couple of sharp lefts and sharp rights and a few very steep parts. It was very fun and I was only crashed into by another sledder once (no injuries for either of us).

After lunch, I took the next cable car (labeled "Rothornbahn 2. Sektion) to the peak of the Rothorn mountain, and wow, what a view. I felt like I'd jumped into the middle of a painting. It was one of the most beautiful and coolest (no pun intended) things ever. In the far distance, I could even see mountains that were over the border into Austria. Don't worry, I took the cable car back down--there's no way I would ever think about sledding down from the peak of that mountain, although many people were skiing down from there.

Anyway, talk about stunning. Absolutely breathtaking views in every possible direction. Since this trip was a trip of sport, I did not bring my camera along, for fear of breaking it! As soon as we got there--actually, as soon as I started seeing the mountains (ahem, hills)--I wished I'd had it with me. Next time, though, I promise. Whenever I forget my camera, 3x5 by John Mayer always pops into my head. Always. So, if you ever make it to Switzerland, dear reader, then I will gladly show you the fantastic mountain views and take you sledding down a mountain or two.

Swiss German

Swiss German. Schweizer Deutsch. Schwyzerdütsch. Schwiizerdüütsch. Schwizertitsch. I am sure there are also other variations of this word that I do not know. This is also my main argument for why Swiss German is not its own language, but rather a dialect of German--there are no spelling rules! For example, in church, the songs are in either English, Standard German, or Swiss German (and all of the speaking stuff is in Swiss German...). In the songs that are Swiss German, I notice a variety of ways to spell the same words. While Swiss German varies among the different parts of German-speaking Switzerland, the spelling varies even among the Züridüütsch speakers (Zürich Swiss German speakers). I also notice that in school during Quellenstunde (a sort of Chapel) when a teacher uses a PowerPoint and puts something in Swiss German, the spelling varies among the teachers. Some of them love the double vowels (ii, üü, ää--these vowel pairs do not appear in Standard German) and some don't. It just depends. Although the pronunciation is still the same, the spelling is different. For an example, see above. :-)

Are you following this? Are you confused? It's really okay if you are, because I can relate. I'm surrounded by it! While I've certainly improved on understanding Swiss German (I mean really, there's nowhere to go but up when you start out with an understanding of zero...), I still have a ways to go. There are times where I understand everything that is said and there are times where I understand almost nothing. Yes, that also has to do with which part of German-speaking Switzerland a person comes from, but it also depends on how fast they are speaking and how strong of an accent they have. It also depends on the topic, although that can be true for Standard German as well. Generally, I understand nearly everything said to me/around me in Standard German. So, you can imagine my frustration with Swiss German, right?

It's hard to think of a way to compare this to English, because we don't have that strong of differences. I mean, yes, British English and Australian English are different than American English (and we don't have a Standard English, just so you know. They are all correct variations of English.) Maybe it's kind of like Scottish English (not to be confused with Scottish Gaelic), where a lot of native English speakers find it difficult to understand. Many Germans and Austrians find Swiss German difficult or impossible to understand at first. Some say that this makes it its own language--the fact that other native speakers cannot understand it right away--but I disagree. In order for a language to be its own language it needs to have a correct spelling.

Okay, sorry. My linguistic nerd side is showing. I could probably write a whole paper about this.

My point in writing this is that although I am doing pretty well with my German and have very few problems understanding things when someone speaks to me in Standard German, Swiss German is another story. It's like learning another language. Kind of. I mean, almost right away, I noticed similarities to Standard German and I noticed patterns in pronunciation that were different than Standard German, and noticing them led to understanding the words. But language learning is frustrating. It's hard. Learning your native language took probably about two-ish years before you started producing sentences, and even then you made a lot of mistakes. Everyone probably even thought it was cute. But when you're learning a new language (second, third, etc.), taking nearly two years to just listen and babble sounds is not so normal, and you expect/want that understanding and fluency to happen sooner. Unfortunately, our brains don't work that way (yes, those "Learn a language fluently in 10 days!" are hoaxes.), and we forget just how much time it takes to understand. Sometimes I think Swiss German is more frustrating because I know that it's "just" a dialect of German and, in my head, I should be able to understand it by now (after nearly six months of being here). But six months, in the language learning process, is not very long. Six months actually, in the scheme of life, is not that long. And it's pretty good that I'm understanding as much as I am right now. I've said from the beginning that I'll probably understand it well at the end of my year here. I'm not planning on speaking it at all, because that would sound weird as a non-native, but I did promise some students that I would say (read: attempt to say) "Chuchichästli" (There are probably other ways to write this as well) on my last day here. It means "kitchen cabinet", which is "Küchenschrank" in Standard German. It's probably the most famous Swiss German word that most non-Swiss Germans cannot pronounce properly.

Oh, Swiss German. Someday we'll be friends ;-)

Learning to be a foreigner

Each time that I've come to Europe, I've tried really hard to blend in. I don't want it to be obvious that I'm American by how I look, how I sound, or what I do. I don't want to look like a tourist and I don't want to stick out as a foreigner.

This is not because I want people to think I'm European, and not exactly that I don't want people to realize that I come from the US. Although I'm not a stereotypically proud American, it's not that I am ashamed of being American either.

I have, however, realized a few things.

1. I don't want to stick out because I don't like sticking out. I don't like sticking out in the US and I don't like sticking out in Europe. I just like to blend in. I've never really wanted to be the center of attention. I realize this may sound weird as someone who studied to be a teacher, but somehow, teaching is the exception--and a big one. I hate when the students talk over me.
2. I have unrealistically high expectations for my German. While I have said that I am much more confident in my German and I feel good about it most of the time (today was not one of those days. English kept creeping into my German sentences, and not in an oops-there-was-an-English-word-in-there way, but a blending-of-the-English-and-German-words-I-was-looking-for way, which makes for nonexistent words and strange looks. Not cool, brain. Not cool.) Anyway, I don't know why, but I've always strived to be accent-free in my German. So far, I have not been successful. I've gotten compliments on my accent, but I know it's not perfect, and I've got about 100 students around me all the time who are more than willing to tell me about my German imperfections. Sometimes it stings. Sometimes it's a little verletztend. But it shouldn't be. I've never expected someone learning English to have a perfect accent or to speak 100% perfectly all the time. In fact, most people I know like accents to some extent. Now, I don't particularly think the American accent is very pretty, but I try to remind myself that Germans often don't think theirs are either--although I like their accents. And having a pretty good German accent is better than having a really bad American accent while speaking German.

Sometimes students are brutally honest. Sometimes I am too hard on myself. Sometimes I need to remember that I will never be perfect, but that is really okay and I'm doing okay.

Thank you, God, for a new day tomorrow.

Frohes Fest und einen guten Rutsch ins neue Jahr!

Hello friends and family! I'm sorry I have not written anything in almost a month...time really flies by and as things become more and more routine, I think of posting less often (reminders are not unwelcome!). Things have been going quite well for me here and I am officially on Christmas break! Dorina and Raffael (her boyfriend) and I traveled to Germany beginning Saturday around noon and got to our destination (Baunatal) at about 8:30pm. Instead of typing out a potentially long post, I've decided to make a Christmas Video! I hope you enjoy it!



Lots of love from Germany (and Switzerland)!