Ever thought of learning a language?

Learning a language is hard. I even had problems learning German, my native language, and was my whole life time bad in spelling. Starting to learn English in 5th grade didn't help at all. You may ask you, why I did learn English, if I didn't like it, but I had no choice, it's a requirement. And now, a little bit older and wiser (?), I think that`s good.

I mean in this country nearly everybody has realized that you have to start earlier to learn a language, 9th grade in high school is really late. Let`s just look at other countries around the world. Some start in kindergarten singing songs in another language. In many parts of Africa you need to speak at least 3 languages of your own country, if you want to communicate with each other.

Okay, I can understand the point of many people here, that most of the people here, never go to a country, where they need to speak another language. I mean, sure, if you would have to speak another language every time you leave your state, you would definitely be multi lingual. But try to learn another language, understand how hard it is, helps you a lot to understand people from another nations and they`re trouble, when they speak English.
I really hope, everybody learns at least one language here in the US. And when your on vacation and try to speak to a waitress or whatever in their native language (and if you just say: "hello, how are you?"), they are just happy, that you tried and see that you have a real interest in their culture (language is culture) and I think that`s what Americans really need to do, take a step to other cultures and try to get over the egoistic image!

Germany - History

Okay I wanted to hide, where I am from, but I changed my mind, because I think, it's important to understand me better. I am from Germany! Uhh, big surprise.

Being from Germany requires some things, when you decide to go to a different country. You have to know a lot about history, in my opinion. Okay, maybe not a lot, but enough to speak quite confident about the German history during the 20th century. Maybe I just think so, because I'm interested in it, but it's for sure helpful. Every once in a while I am asked, if we talk about the 2nd world war at all. In the beginning I was really kind of shocked, I mean how can you not speak about it?

We talk about that and the DDR ( Deutsche Demokratische Republik = German Democratic Republic, for everyone, who's not that confident with history: Germany was splitted from 1949 to1989 in east and west, it was really to cross the border and many people died, when they tried, see also picture) for almost a whole school year in history class.

If I ask students here, what they know about Germany, everyone comes up with: Hitler, killing Jews, with luck sometimes Dirk Nowitzki. But capital is getting harder and that Germany was spilled is new for some kids in my age group. I don't expect them to know, really much about Germany, I mean I also know nearly nothing about the Civil War. But I think everyone should know the basic history of it's own country.

For me it's every time interesting again to talk to people about history, what they think about it, what I think. so if you want to know, if my opinion is, the way it is, then just go ahead and write me!

French Food

A few friends of mine told me about a French café which I should really visit, because it is sooooo good. And because I always listen to my friends, I went there yesterday. But if I listen to my friends, I should really listen carefully, then, of course, I couldn´t remember where this café was at. After one hour wandering around downtown (that was all I remembered) I found it finally.
The French café.
The café looked French (lot`s of French pitures, French music, French little tables, Fench words all around), the food looked French, so I was really exited to eat good old European food again.
I was once in France, living for a week or so with a family. I loved it, especially the food. I ate never that much (good) cheese in a week before, and I was also able to discover Petit Four (see picture), which are wondeful (expensive) little things.
But back to my French experience yesterday. I was there and saw all the wonderful tardes du fromage, that I thought I could try and say what I want in French. And the woman (she was actually French) could understand me (!) and we had a little small talk, which made me really proud.
I sat down, and got my food. It was like a little pie with sweet cheese. I tasted it and it was horrible. Have you ever tasted sweet cheese? You should better not. I thought I would love French food. It took me 5 minutes to find out that I ordered the wrong stuff (I wanted cheese with onion and salad). She obviously couldn´t understand my high-school french too good. I ordered again (this time in English) and I had wonderful food. My day was saved and I have a new favorite restaurant.

But let`s talk a little bit about Fernch food. Doesn`t everybody like it? Okay, I have to admit, frogs and snails isn`t what you think about good food (me either), but they have such a big food culture, that everybody can find something they love. I will just list a few French dishes I can think of in just a second: crêpes, baguette, craissants, ten million different kinds of cheese (brie, camembert, kiri, etc.), tarde, petit four, french wine, canard d´oranges, ...
If you want to know more about french food, there are lots of websites from people, who really know, what they`re talking about. This is for example a nice one, where you can find everything about french food culture even a few recipes
http://www.france-property-and-information.com/french_food.htm
or this one, if you want to know more about cheese
http://www.frencheese.co.uk/
I, for sure, love the French food culture like the rest for their culture, but that`s maybe also, because I´m just really interested in cultures in general (or because I like food).

What's this blog all about?

that is a really good question. Like everyone, who blogs for the first time, do I think that I wont follow my plan to good. Maybe you already know a little bit, how my blog will be, after reading my first post, where I also did a kind of introduction in it.

But to make clear, what this blog is supposed to be about, I will rewrite it: Mainly should this be about my experience to live in another culture, but also about books, foot, whatever seems interesting to me.

I go shopping

hi, guys. I'm trying to start my first blog right now and I actually don't have a clue how to start.
I am from another country and live for a year here, in the US. I live in Iowa and am a junior in High School. And since I'm here, I learn a lot about different cultures and how people react on someone, who's definitely not native speaking. I mean, as you probably notice my English isn't too bad, but I still make mistakes in grammar and pronunciation as well.
I was for example shopping last week. I thought I wouldn't buy much, but when I was in the shop, I found a lot. So I needed a cart. But I already had stuff, so couldn't just go out and get one, so I asked on of the people, who work there, if they could get me one. My problem was that I had a cold, which means my pronunciation was even worse than normally and I didn't know the wort for cart, so i tried my luck with wagon. Bad idea. So I stood there, arm full with cloths and groceries, asking the woman, if she could go out and get my a wagon. The woman answered, after she asked me at least for times to repeat what I said, really slowly:"You can not go out, but I can get you aaa cart." Wonderful, that was all I was asking for. But just because I didn't know, how exactly to say it, it doesn't mean that i am stupid. I know it is hard for everybody to see the differnece between I-help-you and I-make-you-feel-dumb. But there is a difference. You should for example NEVER wait two seconds to say the next word. Try it, if you're alone in a romm, just try it, say :"You can not go out, but I can get you aaa cart." with 2 seconds pause after every word.
And how does it sound? Good? Or made it you fell stupid? It does I beat and i can tell you it makes the people who hear it feel stupid, too. So stop it, even if you talk to someone, who not perfect in your language, two seconds are too much. Maybe half a second is good.