Having lived in Germany for more than 3 years now has not led to a fluency in the language. Which is not exactly that bad especially since I am not a rocket scientist in the linguistic department. Nonetheless, carrying out a proper conversation these days does not leave me cowering in shame like before.
Of course I cannot deny I have the flair for committing frequent grammar mistakes and for not able to find the right vocab to express myself aptly. My German vocabs remain sadly limited owing to that sloth monster who has decided to stay for good since that winter in1972.
Hence, my imperfect German leads me to uncover something which is rather interesting.
In times of sticky language-predicaments, most friends, instead of correcting or helping me, would choose either to ignore my hiccups, remain silent, change the subject or simply look away. Or when I asked for the meaning of a word which I have never heard before, I would receive no reply. Don't even ask me how awkward the air was.
Sometimes I didn't even realise I have made a mistake until these subtle reactions appeared. And I was literally left to my own devices to scramble out of the embarrassing hole.
I am bewildered.
The reason of such responses I did not understand at first. I put myself in their shoes and the only conclusion I could make was they were just too embarrassed themselves to put me in a spot by correcting my language. But then again, most Germans are no strangers to voicing their opinions loud and clear. Sometimes, I suspect they even enjoy doing that. Hence, such reactions are what I least expect.
Once, during our german lesson, someone remarked that nobody ever tried to rectify her mistakes. My teacher's opinion that these people are simply too lazy and find it a hassle to correct us, has a lot of truth in it. It is indeed a fuss to keep correcting someone left, right and center during a conversation. In the end, even the correctee (is there such a word?) would be frustrated too, let alone the corrector. The fun of the chit-chat would subsequently be robbed.
Sure, it is not a written rule that friends, colleagues or aquaintances alike should be the corrector. Though it would certainly be helpful and important for intermediates like me. How else would we learn, right?
Therefore, it was a breath of fresh air when a friend actually corrected my german during dinner one evening. Several times, in fact. She even asked if it's fine for me. I was like, 'Oh yes, please! I would be most grateful!'
The entire evening I considered her with new, thankful eyes.
2 comments:
Hey girl. I don´t know if I´d be happy if people kept correcting my German though. I find that fluency is actually more important than being grammatically correct all the time. Perhaps most germans are just happy that we´re able to speak enough to communicate. Even as an English teacher, I hardly correct all the grammar mistakes of my students - only the more important, recurring ones.... If you want, you can ask your hubby to correct your German? He´d be a 24/7 corrector...and when you need a break, you can ask him to stop correcting you... **just a suggestion**, I tried it before, but ended up getting frustrated at the correcter - my hubby, such that we actually stopped speaking German altogether.
Aiyah, or next time we meet, we speak German loh! hahah.
He does correct me and that's fine by me as I get to learn from my mistakes. Though I refuse to admit that to him. LOL
As for me, I correct the man's and friends' English too. Not because I feel I am more superior than them but because I know they will improve this way. Well, different folks, different strokes.
Eh, I think I still prefer to speak Singlish with my fellow Singaporean friends. :)
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