Life in a Foreign Country

I really wish I could blog more frequently because so much happens every single day that no single blog post could really do an entire week’s worth of experience justice. But until I get to Düsseldorf, my limited Internet access really prevents me from blogging as often as I want, so I’ll have to settle for setting down my main points and such, since no one really wants to read a horrendously long entry! This time, though, we shall have the lovely visual aids of pictures, thanks to the generous help of the Barnum sisters (the other DAAD-RISE US bloggers), who showed me how to upload pics onto this site. =D

Within the 10 days or so I’ve been living in Berlin, I have gotten somewhat more acquainted with “city-living”—something I haven’t exactly been exposed much to in the States. For example, last week, within the first two days of the program (aka Montag und Dienstag), I witnessed my first trash-feaster and experienced my first train creep/stalker (a truly frightful experience!). The other language students and I have done a fair share of touring after class each day, but I must admit that towards the end of the week I got rather tired/lazy, as sight-seeing and doing touristy things is not my cup of tea exactly. I always have the vague feeling that I should be seeing this museum and taking pictures of that monument, but I never actually want to do those things. So I usually end up doing a so-so job at it. This is why I am particularly glad that my parents and I already took a day trip to Berlin last summer, so I’ve already seen the main tourist attractions like Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, etc. Hooray!

Towards the end of last week, I concentrated most of my efforts in finding a place to practice the piano, since, as most of you may know, I don’t hold up very well when denied access to a piano for several days at a time. Things weren’t looking too good, until I discovered the Universität der Künste—the Art University of Berlin, or UdK. After a long and tiring day, I finally got a chance to explore the place a bit, and, pointed in the right direction by a couple of very friendly University students, found the music building and discovered that I needed to show my student ID to get a practice room key. The next day, I prepared a script to introduce myself in German (since the secretary spoke no English and didn’t seem very nice about it), got my language teachers to help me proofread it, and practiced delivering it all the way up to the door. Heart pounding, I gave my little speech to the secretary about being a foreign student in Berlin, and, after a little bit of deliberation, he gave me a key! I had never been so excited before—it was a bit like receiving the first few drops of water after being parched in the desert for days (though I’ve never actually tried that!). Although that day, I practiced on an upright, I think it was the best, most appreciated practiced I’ve ever had. I’ll spare everyone from the details, but I was absolutely elated, though it was only for a couple hours because I had to go home for dinner, since that evening (Freitag) I was going to a concert by the Korean Symphony Orchestra in Germany at the Philharmonic center. The journey there that night is another story that I’ll have to gloss over here, but suffice it to say that I just made it there in time! And the concert was amazing, the program being the Mendelssohn piano concerto in G minor, two traditional Korean pieces, and Beethoven’s 7^th symphony in A major.

Earlier last week (Mittwoch/Wednesday), I also got to see the Berlin Philharmonic rehearse!!! That was also an experience not to be forgotten. Some friends and I were trying to find the Musikinstrumenten Museum (or Museum of Musical Instruments) but stumbled into the Berlin Philharmonie instead. Of course, I immediately became engrossed in examining the upcoming concert programs, and as my friends and I were standing in line for one of the ticket counters, a woman came up to me, asked me in English if I spoke German, and then proceeded to offer me two free tickets to a pre-concert later that day given by the Berlin Philharmonic. So in the end, thanks to that very charitable lady, my friend and I got to witness the Berlin Philharmonic rehearse under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle. As an owner of numerous Berlin Philharmonic recordings, I found this experience absolutely breathtaking.

Over the weekend, there was a cultural carnival, the Karneval der Kulturen, which some of my classmates and I went to. It was a lively occasion, with foods from all over the world (too bad I was already quite full!), but it unfortunately rained like nothing I’ve ever seen on Saturday! What a miserable experience, I mean, the wet feet and all, and on Sunday there was the actual parade with all the costumes, but I was too tired to go out. Oops. 

Yesterday, a bunch of us took a day trip organized by the did to Leipzig. Thankfully, it was a beautiful, sunny—although hot—day in Leipzig. It was difficult to get out of bed at 6:45 in the morning on a holiday (since Germany celebrates  Pentecost, so no classes), but I really did want to see Leipzig, especially for its ties to music history. Leipzig boasts museums dedicated to composers J.S. Bach, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, and Robert & Clara Schumann, but we unfortunately only got to catch a glimpse of Bach’s imprint on the city. Namely, we toured Thomaskirche, the church at which Bach was organist. There, I bought two books: one about Bach, Mendelssohn, and the Schumanns, and one about Mozart (who had also played once in that church). Both books are in German. I would really like to learn a good amount of German and be able to read those books and understand them some day. Already I have tried to translate the first page, with the help of the pocket German-English dictionary I bought on Sunday. I’m about four sentences in. =P

Living in a foreign country on my own has so far been a great experience in that it has reinforced my view of language-learning as a practical and powerful tool. Although learning a foreign language in school is useful and fun, it is truly a special and quite magical experience to take that knowledge to its country of origin and be able to apply it in real life. Sort of like learning to use chopsticks and then actually going to a Chinese restaurant and using those chopsticks to eat food for the first  time. So many times, as I’m walking around the city or making an apologetic face to a German storeowner or civilian because I cannot understand what they are saying (which is often!!), I really wish I had taken some German classes (perhaps a year, L1 and L2) at school before coming because—although I am getting a lot out of this and the language class here—I think I would have appreciated this experience in a different and maybe even more fulfilling way had I been able to communicate more. Most of the stress of living here comes from being afraid to ask others for help because I hate having to always begin my questions to Germans with, “Entschuldigung! Sprechen Sie englisch?” (“Excuse me! Do you speak English?”) because often times people do not, or they do not speak very much, and even when they do, it still seems so…selfish and American to not be able to communicate in German. So I really try to get around without asking when I can, although it is always rewarding when I do ask someone for help in German and even understand their response!

In a way, I think it’s rather lucky that I am living with a landlady who does not speak much English, because then I am forced to practice my German when I come home from class each day. I think my German is improving very quickly mainly because of this; if I had had an English-speaking host, it would be overwhelmingly easy and tempting to just communicate in English. So I guess things do work out. And with all this thinking about languages, I can see now why many people like to travel. I think I would like to travel to the countries whose languages I really like. For example, I think I would very much enjoy spending some time in France, as I have always loved the French language and find myself still practicing it a lot here in Germany. (In fact, whenever I can’t think of a term in German, for some reason it always comes to my mind in its French form.) Just the concept of learning to speak a foreign language functionally and then speaking it in its actual country of origin is such a cool idea if you really think about it. I really hope to work on my French and German skills and then one day come back and actually be able to get around!

And finally, after all my rambling, I would like to thank my Berliner Bär, who has kept me going so far through the “rough” patches, and whose cute, smiling face has provided me with the inspiration and desire to continue immersing myself into the German language and culture…

I hope to post again this week!

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