Back in the Classroom

Right now, I am in the midst of an intensive 2-week German class. It's hard for me to believe that it's been almost 20 months since I've been in the classroom learning German! Being back in a language course feels like such a familiar place for me, having spent most of our first year here in Vienna doing exactly that. It's like riding a bike...I haven't forgotten how to be a student!

I feel very blessed and thankful for this opportunity and experience. Everything came together for this course just a few weeks before I enrolled, and it clearly seemed like God's doing. The course had SPACE (there are only three of us!), was FREE (because Nate helped out this language school when it was first getting started), was SHORT (2 weeks, instead of the typical 4) and started at the RIGHT TIME, just when our church relocation project was calming down. I was worried that I would be disappointed in the course quality or materials, because I've had good and bad experiences in the past...but I have been blown away this time around. The course is moving very fast, because the other two students actually teach German in their home country, so we are focusing on advanced concepts. The teacher is truly gifted in her ability to explain grammar and language and keeps the class very interesting. Despite the fact that the course has been quite tiring, everything else about it has been perfect.

In my current stage of life, I stay at home with Ellie and speak lots of English (in order for her to learn English before she goes to school here). It has been hard for me at times to feel like my German is progressing, or even staying at the same level. It is opportunities like these that will help me improve my language, as well as my confidence, and be a better servant here in Austria. Please pray for more language learning and speaking opportunities for me in the coming months, so I can put into practice what I've learned!

6 Ways Speaking German Has Messed With My English

One thing that is fascinating about crossing cultures is the mixing that happens. This whole process involves taking on a 2nd filter through which we view the world and there are plenty of times where it is easy to get confused...

1. Sentences: German sentences can keep going and going, and it really isn't that big of a deal how long the sentence is, as long as the thought remains the same. This is very freeing, actually. So even though English sentences need to be shorter and get to the point, I find myself constantly needing to go back and cut down my last sentence when I am writing in English. My German long-sentence-tendencies are crossing over.

2. Things that Aren't Really "Things": Certain events, objects or experiences we have here can be translated, but they just don't carry the same sort of emotional connection. The biggest example of this is Strassenbahn (street car / tram). Both translations don't really capture the essence of the object in my mind. Street cars are only in San Francisco and trams are usually at the airport between terminals. What we have here is different and the German word fits it the best. So we usually just use the German word for it, even when we speak English. It makes for some mixed sentences.

3. Word Order / Words : This one is tricky because it is so subtle. German sentences like to have the time before the place in a sentence. So every now and then a sentence like, "I went yesterday to the store"or "I need at four o'clock to call my mom" comes out of your mouth.

4. Forgetting Both Languages: My favorite moment is when I am talking about something and I can't think of the word in German, so I try to think of the word in English and I can't remember that either.

5. Figures of Speech: I have learned that I like to use figures of speech or metaphors a lot in my speaking and writing. This is great until you translate a figure of speech literally into German and your friend looks at you oddly. The other side of it is now I try to go the other direction and talk about a "donkey's bridge" in English and non-German speakers look at me oddly, as well.

6. When the German word IS the English word: today I was reading an article in German about reintroducing the "Wisent" into a certain part of Germany. So I looked up the English translation... which is wisent. That is the name of the "European buffalo." This also goes back to number 2 above.

I know there are way more than six here. Perhaps at the end of the day I am wrong and German hasn't "messed up" my English. I do think that it has made my life richer to learn another language. Sometimes when I am in a group speaking German it just hits me out of the blue - I am speaking and understanding another language! This truly is a blessing from God.

Share your stories of how speaking a second language below, we can't wait to hear them!

Why are You Still in Language School?

Why are you still in language school?

 While most people don't ask us this question directly, I am sure it is floating around out there in the ether. Or maybe the question is something like: "if you can speak German right now, why do you need to go any further in the language learning process?"

The short answer is: we aren't there yet. The goal of our language journey is not just survival, but the ability to share on deeper heart levels. We canspeak German, but we have a lot still to learn.

Recently, we had an experience that illustrated this point. On Sunday, we were invited to have lunch with some friends from church. It was a really great time to speak German and connect with some people our age outside of the Sunday morning setting. We had a great meal and spoke only German the whole time. We laughed, told stories and had a great community experience. 

Towards the end of the meal something fascinating happened. Some long time friends of the people we were eating with stopped by. They heard us speaking German and the conversation continued as one big group. But the whole pace shifted gears. The conversation picked up the pace a little bit more and vocabulary got a bit more complex. No one slowed down for us - as they spoke, they sped up! For the most part, we were able to keep up, but I could feel a shift. I needed to concentrate more to keep pace, and I missed words or phrases along the way.

Neither the pace of the conversation at the beginning, nor the change that happened were intentional. And it wasn't wrong or bad. In fact, it was a really great conversation to be a part of. We love to be challenged in our skills and the relationships we are forming here. But it is interesting to experience the shift from a conversation that isn't requiring as much mental energy, to one that requires more focus to follow along. 

For me, this was a reminder of two big things. 

First of all, we have come a long way. It is amazing to me that we are able to have these conversations so soon after arriving here. The language learning journey is different for everyone and there can and will be road blocks for us in the future. I am a very verbal person and as I am able to express myself more and more in this new language, there is a sense of satisfaction and enjoyment that comes along with it. 

Secondly, I know that we still have so much to learn. We long for the day when we are "there", and we can begin the ministry we came here to do. But we still have a long way to go. It will be awhile before conversations with a group of native speaker don't move too fast for us. It would also be false to say that ministry begins when we are fluent in the language. That statement implies that the time we are investing now isn't "ministry time." But it is. One thing that was reinforced through support raising was that this entire process is ministry. It is not an end goal situation, but a journey of evolving ministry responsibilities. As we walk through this phase, we are reminded that God will continue to provide for our needs and open doors every step of the way.

B1 Test (AKA Saturday Morning Adventures)

Today we took the B1 German competency exam at our language school. Here is the explanation of the levels. It went pretty well, and we felt good coming out of it, even though it was a formal test. We won't know how we did for another 10 days or so. Here are some thoughts from today and an explanation of why we decided to take this formal exam.

The first reason we took this test was because we needed it for our visas. I think we have between two and three years to get to this level of German to meet the visa requirement, but we figured that it would be good to get it out of the way while the grammar nuts and bolts were firmly fixed in our heads. This leads into our second reason for taking the test. We wanted to get a bench mark for how far we have progressed in the language. Language learning is something in life that is hard to pin down. Often times you grow and grow and don't really notice the growth that has happened. There aren't that many times that we have something like this to take the pulse of our progress and so we jumped at the opportunity.

Last fall, I wrote about speaking like a child and preparing for our A1 exam. That feels like so long ago and it is amazing to see how we have grown in the last nine months. Like any student studying a subject, the further we go into German, the more we realize how much we have yet to learn. 

Ultimately, language and culture are tools that we use to effectively communicate the gospel cross-culturally. We really love German and Austria, but we are not here just to learn the language and culture. We are here because we have a loving and good God that wants to have a relationship with Austrians in German*. And we believe wholeheartedly that the time we are investing now in language learning will bear fruit in the future as we seek to be a witness to Christ's message and to encourage Austrian believers to do the same.









*I am still blow away at the language diversity on this planet. The fact that communion with God is had through so many different languages and variety of cultures completely astounds me.

Practice, Practice, Practice!

Some fellow students on the hike (being around high school
and college age kids can make you feel a little old.)

**Note: click the images to see them full screen!

Last Friday, we took part in an adventure with our language school. Our language school offers a large variety of opportunities to visit important cultural locations and learn about the history and cultural significance that goes along with those places. We also get valuable time to speak the German language both with teachers and other language learners.

This time, a large group of us took a bus up to a local mountain called Kahlenberg. It has a beautiful church on top that commemorates the famous Siege of Vienna and the Polish king Sobieski who rescued the city. We got to see the beautiful view and then hike down the mountain (the hike up is a lot more intense than the hike down). I (Nate) would like to ride my bike up it some day, even though it is pretty challenging!

 An important part of the outing was getting to practice German as we walked down the mountain. It is very important that we have these opportunities to speak outside of class and practice naturally expressing our thoughts and experiences. It is also fun to get to know classmates and teachers outside of the more structured classroom setting. We learn everyday words that may not come up in class (like the word for mosquito) or ways of expressing ideas or experiences. So take a look at the photos and enjoy!

The view from the top!

You can just see famous buildings in the main part of the cities.

Meatballs and Language Confusion

On our anniversary a few weeks ago, Nate took me out to a Spanish tapas restaurant in our neighborhood. The food was delicious, and it had a great atmosphere. We will definitely go back! The only drawback, however, was my language confusion...

You see, before I learned German, I learned Spanish. I got through Spanish 5 by the end of high school and was fairly proficient with the language when I graduated. Then it sat dormant in my brain for 10 years. Now fast forward... when I began learning German last year, my Spanish vocabulary kept popping back into my head, because the "foreign language" part of my brain was functioning again! It was a problem only at the beginning, and it didn't take long before German overtook Spanish in my brain. Sadly, now I am completely inept at Spanish. I tried to speak it with a friend a few months ago and none of the words came out - only German. I guess my brain only has enough space for one foreign language right now!

So, back to the restaurant. We're sitting there reading the menu, which is in Spanish and German, and my brain starts to get confused. My foreign languages collide! The two language are mixing in my mind while Nate and I are speaking English together, trying to decide what to order. And we literally had this conversation...


Bethany: (recognizing the German and Spanish word for a food item) Mmm, that looks good. We should order that.

Nate: What does?

Bethany: Umm... umm. I forget how to say it in English. (scratches head, thinks really hard). What do you call a ball made out of meat?

Nate: ....a meatball?

Bethany: Yes! Yes. Meatball. Wow.


There you have it folks. I forgot the word for meatball, yet I could describe it as "a ball made out of meat." This is what happens to your brain in language school when your foreign languages collide - your mother tongue goes downhill.


Photo credit: Alvimann from morguefile.com

At Home Again

Mike, the delivery man, opening boxes!

So much has happened in the last week, that we've been a bit slow in updating the blog. Lots of exciting things!

The biggest highlight was that last Thursday, our container from the States arrived! We had put all of these items into storage nearly two years ago (22 months to be exact) and what a blessing it was to be reunited with many things we had missed - photo albums, kitchen utensils (we like to cook, so this was exciting), clothing, furniture, books, decor and sentimental things. There were many things we actually forgot we owned! It was fun and special to open each box and be surprised by what was inside. It was like Christmas!

The kitchen, in the midst of organizing!

Now that we've had time to sort through and organize
everything, our apartment is really starting to feel like home. Our bookcases once again display wedding photos, vases and our favorite reads. We are sleeping on our own bed again (heavenly!). We are cooking our favorite meals using the kitchen appliances we love so much. Although it was freeing to live simply for a transitional period of time, it is still special to have a home again that feels "like us".

Back in class.

We spent the few days after  the delivery settling in and (me, especially) organizing. Then on Monday, we returned to our language school to begin the next level of German study. Our first two days have been very good and have gone really quickly! That is a sign of a good teacher and a group of interactive students! We've been challenged with some new grammar and a little more homework than we had before (which is good!). We're looking forward to continuing to expand our learning in this next level of German.

Thank you for your continued prayers!