Friendship in language

Since I started learning German my number of German speaking friends and acquaintances has gone from a single family friend who happened to work in Germany for a period of time to him 2 German women, someone who grew up in Germany and even a girl my age all the way out in Switzerland! The curious thing is that these delightful people just came into my life by chance without me even looking for fellow German speakers! So when I am with these people what ratio of German to English do we speak? Well it varies from person to person

meret– Swiss friend

I don’t think we have ever had a English conversation between the two of us. When I met her she was on a school exchange and she obviously spoke English in class but whenever we text it’s always in German for two reasons #1 it’s her mother tongue so I think it’s respectful to speak her language and #2 only chatting in German allows me to work on my fluency so I love the practice!

Alexandra – German woman #1

I first came into contact with Alex when I was at school, about a year or so before I had to learn German properly. In the early days she used to have to attempt to communicate with me in fractured English and teach me a little German in the study periods, later on, when I knew that my new personal assistant was German, the German lessons became a regular in-The-timetable occurrence. By the time Alex left a few months before Christmas 2020, we were able to have short conversations in German and after she had left, we were able to email each other in fluent German and understand each other! Now that I have left school, we are able to be friends on Facebook and the only language we ever speak is German!

Lisa – German woman #2

I’m not going to lie, me and Lisa have always spoken some level of Dinglish, a mixture of English and German where you start your sentence in one language and finish it in the other or answer a question in one language in the other. However sometimes we can make up our minds, for example when I was still at school, on the mornings where I knew I had a German test that day, we would only communicate in German or if I need to tell her a secret I speak German. On the flip side if we have a conversation with somebody else, we speak English. I have noticed that whenever she wants me to do something, even if she is speaking English to everyone else or we are in the middle of an English conversation, she always tells me what she wants me to do in German. I don’t know if this is a conscious decision to exercise my German skills, or just habit because she speaks to her dog in German but I sort of like it as not only does it help me recognise German words but if she does it in front of others, it makes me look very intelligent and the other people always comment on my skills!

Rueben– family friend

in lockdown, when I was first learning German, it was agreed that I would text him in German every day after my Rosetta Stone class. At first I would tell him obvious stuff such as “I am 16 years old” or useless information like “I had a apple for breakfast” and he would have to correct me because I had made like a million mistakes but as lockdown progressed, our conversations got more sophisticated and more than a year later, if we had to talk to each other, I would say that we would be more likely to converse in German.

Theresa– grew up in Germany

Theresa went to an English speaking school and she has forgotten all her German lessons so we speak English day to day and just throw in the odd German insults where it fits!

in conclusion I have been very very lucky to have so many German speaking friends and colleagues. You have been essential to my German learning journey! Without you, my German would be nowhere near as good as it is! Whether you have gave me lessons or just chat to me in your lovely language, I would like to extend a giant Dankeschön for the help.

ANNUNCIO

io voglio una ragazza o una donna giovane italiana per mi scrivere in italiano. Studio italiano e voglio una amica per parlare italiano con. Io piaccio danzare, musica, cavalli, cani, mangiare il cibo italiano. Ho 18 anni e vivo in scozza . Mandami un e-mail eemmcg04@gmail.com

e e m mcgrath