The language barrier
Oct. 8th, 2010 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
extemporaneaI didn't sleep at all well last night, despite being really tired and I woke up this morning feeling pretty rough; the cold I had anticipated yesterday seemed certain to be a reality pretty soon - but it never showed up and I felt better and better throughout the day.
First thing this morning, I tried to arrange a test drive for a car. It cannot be said to have gone well. I called up and asked if they spoke English; the guy I spoke to obviously didn't have amazing English skills but he knew enough to understand me when I said I wanted to arrange a test drive and he transferred me through to the appropriate person. I then asked him if he spoke English. A little bit, he said. Now in my experience so far, everyone answers the question with "yes, a little bit" and then they are amazing at the whole English thing. This guy was the exception that proves the rule. I said that I wanted to arrange a test drive and he replied in German. I told him that I didn't understand and repeated slowly and clearly that I wanted a test drive (hoping he would understand and that "a little bit" meant he would understand phrases related to his work and that I am not the first English-speaker to want a test drive) - he replied again in German. So I just said (again) that I didn't understand and thank you and hung up because otherwise we were going to go around in circles.
This was somewhat frustrating. Mostly, I was frustrated with myself for not speaking the language, because I really don't know anything - I am taking lessons (more on that in a bit) but I can't say anything useful yet. And yeah, I was kind of pissed off at the guy, not because of the German thing (because it is totally me who sucks here - I am the one who is at fault for not speaking German, he is in no way at fault for not speaking English) but because he said yes he spoke some English when he obviously didn't. All he needed to say was no, and then I would have said okay, thanks and moved on with my life. Instead there was horrendous confusion with us both speaking different languages at each other and getting absolutely nowhere and I ended up just feeling like shit. I could have done without that.
After the phone debacle, I took a tram out to Eppelheim as I had seen a nice flat advertised there but didn't know what the area was like and wanted to have a look around. It seems okay but I don't think I want to live there; a little too far out from Heidelberg for me, and the flat was actually on the main street, which isn't ideal. The pictures did look nice though, so maybe I will have a look anyway - there's not much to be had by way of flats at the moment, so I can't afford to be too picky!
When I finally got into work, I went and got some stationary from the receptionist, my desk is looking more like someone lives there now, it's good! And then after lunch, I had my first German lesson. The teacher is great, he spent a lot of time bantering with the class, so it was a really relaxed atmosphere, but we actually got through quite a lot. I have missed the first four classes, but was able to pick things up okay, so it's not the end of the world.
After the lesson, I had a meeting with Glenn, who continues to be awesome; he's such a nice guy. At lunch (after I had explained about my telephone woes this morning) he had offered to call around for me if I needed help and then gave me lots of advice and info about cars and related issues in Germany and also offered to give me the details of the guy he went to for car insurance as he spoke good English and got good deals. So the first thing he did when we started the meeting was give me this insurance guy's details. And the repeat the offer to call around if I needed help, or just generally offer to help in anyway. Did I mention how he is awesome?
And the we chatted about science and he suggested some good papers for me to read, so it looks like I'm going to be busy reading next week. And we've arranged a time to go over the data and code he has (that I will eventually be modifying) a week monday.
Now though, now it is the weekend and I so need one of those!
First thing this morning, I tried to arrange a test drive for a car. It cannot be said to have gone well. I called up and asked if they spoke English; the guy I spoke to obviously didn't have amazing English skills but he knew enough to understand me when I said I wanted to arrange a test drive and he transferred me through to the appropriate person. I then asked him if he spoke English. A little bit, he said. Now in my experience so far, everyone answers the question with "yes, a little bit" and then they are amazing at the whole English thing. This guy was the exception that proves the rule. I said that I wanted to arrange a test drive and he replied in German. I told him that I didn't understand and repeated slowly and clearly that I wanted a test drive (hoping he would understand and that "a little bit" meant he would understand phrases related to his work and that I am not the first English-speaker to want a test drive) - he replied again in German. So I just said (again) that I didn't understand and thank you and hung up because otherwise we were going to go around in circles.
This was somewhat frustrating. Mostly, I was frustrated with myself for not speaking the language, because I really don't know anything - I am taking lessons (more on that in a bit) but I can't say anything useful yet. And yeah, I was kind of pissed off at the guy, not because of the German thing (because it is totally me who sucks here - I am the one who is at fault for not speaking German, he is in no way at fault for not speaking English) but because he said yes he spoke some English when he obviously didn't. All he needed to say was no, and then I would have said okay, thanks and moved on with my life. Instead there was horrendous confusion with us both speaking different languages at each other and getting absolutely nowhere and I ended up just feeling like shit. I could have done without that.
After the phone debacle, I took a tram out to Eppelheim as I had seen a nice flat advertised there but didn't know what the area was like and wanted to have a look around. It seems okay but I don't think I want to live there; a little too far out from Heidelberg for me, and the flat was actually on the main street, which isn't ideal. The pictures did look nice though, so maybe I will have a look anyway - there's not much to be had by way of flats at the moment, so I can't afford to be too picky!
When I finally got into work, I went and got some stationary from the receptionist, my desk is looking more like someone lives there now, it's good! And then after lunch, I had my first German lesson. The teacher is great, he spent a lot of time bantering with the class, so it was a really relaxed atmosphere, but we actually got through quite a lot. I have missed the first four classes, but was able to pick things up okay, so it's not the end of the world.
After the lesson, I had a meeting with Glenn, who continues to be awesome; he's such a nice guy. At lunch (after I had explained about my telephone woes this morning) he had offered to call around for me if I needed help and then gave me lots of advice and info about cars and related issues in Germany and also offered to give me the details of the guy he went to for car insurance as he spoke good English and got good deals. So the first thing he did when we started the meeting was give me this insurance guy's details. And the repeat the offer to call around if I needed help, or just generally offer to help in anyway. Did I mention how he is awesome?
And the we chatted about science and he suggested some good papers for me to read, so it looks like I'm going to be busy reading next week. And we've arranged a time to go over the data and code he has (that I will eventually be modifying) a week monday.
Now though, now it is the weekend and I so need one of those!
