The struggles of German, Public Transportation, and German Public Transportation in Particular

German is undeniably a hard language to learn. Just when you think you’ve unlocked a new level of understanding, a split verb or the genitive case is there to humble you. Other times, even if your German is grammatically correct, Germans will switch immediately to English, hearing your American accent and jumping at the chance to help you by speaking your language and practicing their own, usually flawless, English. At the beginning of my exchange, I welcomed this, understanding little German and speaking even less. But I realized a month in that while I could understand nearly everything said in German, I had low confidence when it came to speaking, largely because of the crutch of being able to speak English in most situations outside of my host family. Thankfully, a phrase as simple as “Do you mind if we speak German? I am trying to learn!”—“Wären Sie damit einverstanden, wenn wir Deutsch sprechen? Ich möchte es gerne lernen!”—was almost always met by an enthusiastic “Ja, natürlich!” This, of course, then necessitated me actually speaking German in public, mistakes and all. But after nearly a month of just using the German I had to communicate, I have improved dramatically in my ability to speak confidently and clearly. A lesson I learned from speaking German at every chance I get, in addition to the indirect object and the dative case—if you are also in the process of learning German, your heart rate probably just went up a little—is that I can’t take myself too seriously. Becoming okay with making silly mistakes, such as mixing up “Zauberer” and “sauber”—“wizard” and “to clean”—has opened me up to learning so much more and far quicker than if I only spoke when I was fully confident that I would be correct.

The same lesson of not taking myself too seriously is crucial for most aspects of the exchange, especially managing the famed Deutsche Bahn (DB)—Germany's national railway company. Just last week, my friend Natalia—another American exchange student in my small town—and I were on our way back from our Monday night language class in Minden. The journey to and from the class involves biking to the train station in our town, taking a train to Minden, taking a bus into the Innenstadt, then walking from the ZOB (Zentraler Omnibusbahnhof) to the building where our class takes place—and then, of course, doing that all in reverse. Last Monday night, we had finished our class and grabbed Mexican food to go from a restaurant by the bus stop. While we were happily munching on our burritos, we hopped on the RE78. As soon as the train started moving, we realized that we had gotten on the RE78 headed for Nienburg—the total opposite direction from our town. We quickly got on the DB Navigator app and began looking for connections that would get us back in the right direction, only to realize that the only other option had departed the station two minutes after we took off toward Nienburg. The only way to get back to our town would be to stay on the train to Nienburg and then back again—making what would be a ten-minute ride nearly two and a half hours. After we got over the initial panic of being on a train crossing state lines, we were able to laugh at ourselves and settle into the train ride, enjoying that extra bit of time we could spend together talking. The whole Nienburg experience was definitely user error, but then, on the following Wednesday, after checking and double-checking the right train—NOT going to Nienburg—we arrived on the platform to face the ever-dreaded Verspätung, announcing in bolded letters that our train had been delayed an hour and a half. We ended up having a vending machine dinner of Oreos and Kinder Buenos and listening to Vampire Weekend while we waited—one of my favorite memories from this week.

The ability to take life as it comes and not let mistakes or uncontrollable things—whether grammar errors, an excursion to Nienburg, or a classic DB Verspätung—bother you is critical not only to learning while abroad but also to enjoying the experience to its fullest. These past three months have been some of the most chaotic and unpredictable, but also the most joyful, boundary-pushing, memory-filled moments of my life. Every morning when I wake up, I have no idea what crazy stories I will be telling my friends and family back at home at the end of the day. While at one point that may have made me feel anxious, now it makes me excited. So here’s to more adventures to Nienburg and beyond!