O Captain! My Captain!

[dunxx]

As I was popping out to get a pint of milk yesterday I saw our local drunk sitting on a doorstep at the far end of the street

Comments

[holographia]

so your german still isn't very good??! do most people in berlin speak english nowadays? i hear that a lot about the larger euro cities i guess.

i don't encounter homeless people in my neighborhood but i do see them in the commercial districts and always tell myself that someday i will buy someone a sandwich.

[dunxx]

so your german still isn't very good??!

Sadly, no. It's definitely improved. I can understand pretty much everything that's going on (unless it's bellowed at me by a drunk) but my grammar is still poor, which means it's tricky for me to converse. Reading papers, fine. Getting around town, fine. Chatting about politics, impossible.

Part of the problem is that I work from home so most of my German-speaking has happened in your classic role-play situations: shops, post offices, restaurants etc. Another is that there are quite a few Brits around, so out of work I've taken the easy option and hung around with those folks.

But it's pretty shabby that I've been here a year and can't speak the language properly ... I'm determined to enrol on a language course soon!

[tribalist]

what do you do?

[dunxx]

I'm a freelance journalist - I write about finance. It tends to be a bit of a conversation-killer. Most people don't have any interest in the subject. Happily, I find it fascinating!

[rwillmsen]

I usually find it much easier to understand things shouted at me by drunks.

[dunxx]

The sentiment is always clear - it's the specific content that I have trouble with ...