Best Reasons to Learn a Foreign Language

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Angie: “Mom, I want to be an exchange student.”
Mom: “Hah, okay tell me again in a week. Then I’ll know your serious.”

This conversation happened every single Wednesday night after I got home from meeting up with my sailing crew for four months straight. Without fail. Even if the meeting was canceled, you can bet at 9:17 p.m. on Wednesday night, I was reminding my mother of how badly I wanted to travel.

People have told me both that I’m crazy, and that I am the most courageous person they have ever met. Apparently not every 17 year old wants to see the world, a concept I don’t think I’ll ever fully understand, but I wanted to fluently learn to speak another language, and I couldn’t think of a better way to do it.

Not only is learning a foreign language fun… but it enhances every aspect of traveling in matters such as safety and saving money, as well as the little things, like being able to order a meal all by yourself. It was always the little things that made me feel the best when I was learning German, like when a stranger on the street asked me what time it was… and I actually understood what they were asking me. I’ll never forget the time I almost ran over an old lady on my bike. She started angrily waving her cane at me at the cross walk where we both waited, and I couldn’t help but burst out laughing simply because I was so happy to understand what she was saying.

Languages enhance travel experiences in so many ways, the biggest being the language is based on the culture, so if you want to really understand the culture, you need to understand and speak the language. For example, a common German stereotype is that Germans are punctual… and the language reflects this. If I were to say “See you soon” in English, I could mean in five minutes, tomorrow, next week, or even in a year. “Soon” does not have a definitive time frame where as in German one can say “Bis gleich” (until within the hour) “Bis später” (until sometime later today) “Bis Bald” (until sometime in the relatively near future but at the earliest tomorrow) and “Bis irgendwann” (until eventually), but in English, “See you soon” or “Until soon” is the equivalent of all those things! (Note how often in English speaking countries it’s normal to be ‘fashionably late’ whereas in Germany anything less than 15 minutes early is late!) When saying goodbye to my German friends I would often say “Bis gleich” when I wasn’t going to be seeing them for days, and they would look at me as if I were crazy!

Traveling and experiencing life from other perspectives can influence every aspect of someone's life. For me, because Germany is very eco-friendly, I try to mimic that lifestyle back here in California. I always hang dry my clothes outside, bike to school, and unplug my electronics when they’re not being used to save electricity. I now have friends to visit on literally every continent in the world (aside from MAYBE Antarctica!), all because the German language united us! I know countless people who can’t speak a word of English, yet they are some of the people I feel closest too, all because I took the time and effort to learn their culture, and by default their language. My second host family is a perfect example of this. I love my host-dad more than almost anyone in the world, yet his English is about a good as my Hindi (and let it be noted I don’t even know how to say “hello” in Hindi).

Ever heard the expression “There’s always more fish in the sea?” Well for people who only speak one language, the expression should be modified too something like “There’s always more fish in the puddle.” Not only does traveling allow you to see the world, but the people who live in it as well. Imagine being from Whales and walking up to an English speaker and saying “Actually, the sun does shine from my ass." Not only will this cause a lot of confusion, but seeing as the pick-up line doesn’t translate, the person probably won’t even know they’re being hit on! My fourth host-parents met while traveling… my host-mom was from Quebec, and my host-dad from Germany… and now they speak English because it’s a ‘mutual’ language a.k.a. not either of their first languages.

Last but certainly not least ( There had to be cliché somewhere in this post!), my personal favorite reason to travel and learn new languages is all the mess ups while trying to learn. A couple of my personal favorites include:

Erik: “Hey Angie! What’s the English word for dick?”

-‘Dick’ means fat in German-

Felix: “We all have to puke on Angie! No, that’s the wrong word! We all have to sleep on Angie!”

*In German*

Angie: “Hey are your balls cold? No no! I meant are your ears cold?!”

No matter what language you’re trying to learn, embrace the mistakes! Not only will it make it more fun to learn, but if you’re not afraid to mess up, it will be a lot easier too! And maybe it’ll even help you remember things. I know I’ll never mix up testicles and ears in German again!

 

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P.S. I want to give a special thanks to one of my readers for the idea to write this post. Learn English with Kaplan today!

Times Are A Changin

Before I was an exchange student, change was one of my biggest fears. But you know, after living with four families you don’t know from Adam, and moving to a country where the only things you can say in the language are ‘Bless you’ and ‘Sh*t…’ you learn to get over your fears real quick. That is why “Angie’s Odyssey” will be going through some formatting changes over the next *insert relatively long time span here.* But don’t worry, no matter how odd or different the background looks, it will be the same good old “Angie’s Odyssey” that we’ve all grown to (hopefully) love!

Speaking of loving, be sure to like “Angie’s Odyssey” on Facebook by clicking on the link on the top left hand corner of this page!

Now GO SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS!

Changing It Up a Bit

Seeing as I still write this blog, the previous subtitle, “A California Girl in Germany” now seems inappropriate… while I may always be a Californian girl…. I won’t always live in Germany, so the title has officially been modified from

“Angie’s Odyssey – A California Girl in Germany”

to

“Angie’s Odyssey – A ‘Germanized’ Girl in California”

and let me assure you, I have most certainly been Germanized in multiple regards. Even now, after I have been in California for two and a half months, I still start conversations with people I don’t know in German and eat ‘the German way.’

15 Different Things About Germany

It doesn’t matter how long I live in Germany, I’ve been here for ten(+) months and I could live here the rest of my life(and who knows, I just might!), but there are still some things I will never understand about the way of the country and the people. Don’t get me wrong, Germany is the place I’ve come to call home, but some things I still find a little too different to be considered ‘comparable.’

1) The bathrooms in German houses always have the light switch to the bathroom in the hallway. This means you can’t turn the light on from inside the bathroom. Not only is that simply strange to begin with, but I always imagine an angry older sibling locking his younger sibling in the bathroom (because the doors are designed so that they can be locked from the inside and the outside) and turning the light off, leaving the small child locked alone in a dark bathroom. That just doesn’t sound very pleasant, now does it?

2) It doesn’t matter what temperature it is outside, generally speaking Germans are ALWAYS in the mood for ice-cream. I mentioned that to my host-dad and he made a very good point in saying if they waited for the weather to be good, they would never eat ice-cream. 

3) German street names are absolute horrors. As a general rule, they all have a minimum 27 letters and sound roughly the same. This tends to mean that maps are absolutely covered in text, and getting a feel for road shape and direction should require a degree.

4) The German school system (consisting of ”Grundschule,” “Hauptschule," “Realschule” and “Gymnasium”) is so incredibly unlike the U.S. school system that it is honestly pointless to even begin describing the differences. If anything it would make more since to describe the similarities, the conversation would be much shorter, if not non-existent.

5) Dogs do exactly as they please. They come on the buses, into the grocery stores, and they sit on chairs in cafes. They even do their business on the ‘pedestrian part’ of the sidewalk. Watch your step!

6) Stay out of bike side of the sidewalk when walking. If not, the bikers will murder you without a second thought. (Especially in Berlin where the biking paths are known as ‘the second death strip.’)

7) Generally speaking, at pools and beaches people will stare females down more intently when they are wearing board shorts over their bathing suits then if they were naked. Trust me, I’ve learned from experience. Men and woman also go into saunas naked together. Totally normal.

8) Particularly bloody cuts and wounds are generally described as “not tasty” (nicht lecker). 

9) German toilets are just… well… weird. I’m sorry, everything in Germany is “different,” not weird… except for the toilets. Yes, the toilets are weird.

10) If you don’t want to see nipples, don’t turn on the TV. I’m serious. I know I have frequently written throughout the year that in Germany ‘soft porn’ is normal on the television and the newspapers, but I honestly could not emphasize that enough.  Especially the program of the private stations at night can be a series of phone sex commercials.

11) So you say your hungry? Cool, do you want a Dönner Kebab, or bread from the bakery? It’s your choice, bread for your already parched mouth, or yummy yummy (and I really do mean delicious) grease. Several streets are consisted of kebab shops on a rotated basis.

12) Germans can legally buy alcohol at the age of 16, and can’t get their full drivers license until they’re 18. While this has become totally normal to me, whenever I mention it to my Californian friends for the first time, they’re usually speechless.

13) On the Autobahn, no speed limit sign actually means no speed limit. And people wonder why I ride my bike EVERYWHERE no matter the weather, I’m still terrified of how fast the Germans drive.

14) Germans are obsessed with privacy, yet they answer the phone with their last name rather than with “Hallo.” Oh, and “Kock” is a common German last name.

15) Tissues are ‘man’s best friend.’ Not dogs. Tissues.

Yeah, so it’s a little different, but Germany is my one true love.

(Oh, and Happy Birthday and belated Father’s Day Dad!)

EUROPATOUR!

(I apologize in advance when this post is abnormally long, but to be fair, I do have to make up for all the lost writing due to the strike. )

So where to begin? Well, with nothing other than the beginning of course! After miraculously getting to the train station before the train left at 5:20 a.m., I realized the ONLY thing I forget to bring was nothing other than my camera memory card; but no worries, I somehow had the luck of meeting a girl the very morning the tour began (THANKS KENZIE!) who brought an extra 8GB card along with her which she let me use for the trip. Now, how I’m going to choose 10-15 photos out of the 1000+ that I took is a little beyond me…

I had the pleasure of not only making a new best Canadian friend for life, but a new best Canadian friend who speaks French. She defiantly made France a lot easier to get through, and with the Spanish that I speak, the only country we really had no clue what was going on in, was the Czech Republic.

So some highlights of the trip include watching the gay French performers do awesome flips and then make out in Strassenburg, France, meeting a really cool guy from Libya in Switzerland… not to mention feeling like I was in a postcard the entire time I was in Switzerland and exploring the third biggest caves in the world (also in Switzerland), getting stared at/talked too/checked out by/followed by almost every Italian man who saw Anne and I(-quick story, two guys were eating dinner and even ran outside to continue watching us walk down the street!-), regaining my tan/blonde hair in a matter of two short weeks (my German friends even told me I look a lot tanner and that my hair looks lighter xD), walking to McDonald's numerous times for milkshakes with only slippers, riding in a gondola in Venice, seeing the Schönburn Schloß in Vienna and only being able to think of my amazing 9th and 10th grade history teacher the entire tour –yes Mr. Emery, I clearly mean you!-, and last but probably my favorite memory of all, going to the club in Prague.

Anne: “I’ll have 2 strawberry milkshakes please.”

McDonald’s Employee: “Oh are you on a diet?”

Anne, being the kindhearted Canadian she is, agreed to get my milkshake while I went to the bathroom… the employee there however didn’t seem to see her act of kindness.

Being the strange person I am, I took a picture of every meal on the trip (mainly because it felt like something my mom would do actually) so I’m sure at some point there will be a ‘Special Post’ dedicated to just the food, but until then, there was one special salad that my newfound best Finnish friend Akseli decided not to finish in Italy where it’s considered rude to not finish your meals because it’s seen as insult to the chef’s cooking. Akseli put the salad bowl in the middle of the table, and not only did the waiters refuse to take it away, but they continued to all give him death stares at every meal for the rest of stay in this particular hotel. The funniest part of the story is it was Anne’s salad to begin with that she gave to Akseli.

Touring Europe with a group of people I met the day the tour began was a little strange, but I wouldn’t have it any other way… I have so many memories and new friends I’ll never forget, and through the whole tour, despite how much fun it was, I couldn’t help but feel more and more thankful that I’m having my exchange year in Germany. Germans may be cold at first and have to knock you onto your feet before they say “Excuse Me,” but that doesn’t change how much I love Germany and how thankful I am to be living in it.

Getting back into the swing of things, especially enough to be motivated to write a blog post(and especially ESPECIALLY after having a five day weekend on top of a two week Europe tour) was a bit harder than I expected,  but words cannot describe how happy I was to be back in Hameln at the end of the tour. I remember sitting on the final train to Hameln, almost squirming with joy that I would soon be back in my little, beloved town seeing my family and friends again. If I was like that after only two weeks, I can only imagine what a year or two away will be like.

P.S. Look what the post did to my Cheese-It’s!?!?

And now, a few of my favorite photos:

And a special congratulations to all of California’s Seniors who are graduating tonight! Sorry I can’t be there with you, guys!

STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE!

Seeing as it's a strange week when I DON'T see or a hear about a strike, I figured I'd go "European style" and have a little strike here of my own. That's right, Angie's Odyssey is on STRIKE for the next two weeks. But don't worry, once this strike is over, I promise there are going to be lots of fun pictures from magnificent places such as Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria, and the Czeck Republic. I'm hoping English is widely spoken in these places, because aside from Switzerland where German is also spoken, I'm kinda screwed.

Of course, I originally intended to do a normal post for this week and THEN go on strike, but we all know how 'intentions' don't always work out quite as planned and seeing as I need to be on the train tomorrow at 5:20 a.m., I'm kinda thinking getting some shut eye might be a good idea. However, while I'm here, I'll do a 'quickie' post, then the strike can officially begin.

So, the first of May in Germany is Labor Day (so the first of September back in the U.S.) and therefore EVERYTHING is closed, and at least in my beautiful town of Hameln, it’s tradition to get a couple hundred people in the town together and  go ‘wanderen’ with beer in hand until we get to the ‘Kiesteich’ (basically a little lake). I feel like everybody thinks I’ve been lying to them when I tell them I’m from California because I got so badly sunburned while most of my German friends (despite not wearing sunscreen!!) didn't. I’m going to fly back this summer, burn like a crisp, and then melt down into oblivion from the heat.

I really have to say, I have a serious issue with underwear shopping here in Europe. I don't know if it's a Europe thing, a Germany thing, or simply a Hameln thing but I cannot find 'normal' underwear to save my life. "Normal underwear" being defined as underwear that doesn't make at least half my butt hang out, and what's even more annoying is the less fabric there is, the more expensive the underwear becomes... I really don't understand that. I have nobody to show my underwear too and I generally avoid stripping down in front of people (well, at least when it can be avoided) and therefore I would honestly be much happier with normal underwear that actually 'covers' so to speak. Not necessarily 'granny-panty' status, just a LITTLE BIT more than nothing. And honestly, even if I did have somebody to eagerly show my underwear too, hopefully 'said guy' would like me for me and not my underwear. Just saying. 

Also this past week seeing as the sun no longer ceases to exist in the beautiful country called Germany, most everyday a group of friends and I have been getting together and sitting on the Wesser Riverside simply enjoying the sun. It's pretty sad that I can wear short-shorts in 55 degree F weather now and still be too warm, but in California I wouldn't even wear them with 85 degree F weather.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was my rant for the week. Tune in next time to hear all about the Europe Tour and until then, LET THE STRIKE BEGIN!

P.S.Look what I found on the way to a friends house!