Learning to speak German

German is a neat language, and given the context, I can get the gist of things. More and more, I am finding that I can understand simple (written) sentences. My guess is that 15% of the words are similar to the English form (wasser = water), and another 10% are imported from French (Champignon = champignon) or another romance language. However, the remaining 75% of German words bear no similarity with any other form of human communication (Geschirrspulmittel = diswashing liquid). I found the first weeks here to be particularly frustrating because, contrary to a Mexican vacation, I can't bluff my way through simple interactions (Spanish is just like French, but with more flair). I can't even begin to put words together into a sentence yet.

So this past week I started taking German lessons. These courses are offered by the municipal Volkshochschule ("Folks High School").

The classes are after work two times per week (Zwei mal pro Wochen). The teacher is a multilingual retired geographer who is very patient with us. More importantly, he speaks slowly and is pleasant to listen to. Looking around the classroom, there are a couple of ladies from Chile, a young guy from Perth, Australia, and other bewildered immigrants (like me) from around the world. Although I can barely read a menu (oh, who cares? It's all sausage and cabbage anyways), I realize that I am fortunate to be young-ish and bilingual. Trying to learn another language gets harder as one gets older or when one has only ever known English is a bit of a handicap. As there's no homework or exam, I am enjoying the class.