AMD 5

This past week I spent sometime with a German friend of mine named Kathi Vent. Kathi is originally from Hamburg but moved to Munich with her parents when she was young. For high school she went to boarding school which is where we met. Given, English is very prevalent in Germany and often taught all years of school, Kathi is very good at English. She even says that she now speaks it with a American accent. When hanging out with her we decided to see if we could go a whole meal and just speak German, surprisingly it wasn't as difficult to do as I expected. Knowing basic conversational skills it is a lot more entertaining to learn new words and expression through spoken dialogue. Although I've known her for some time, it brought our relationship to a different kind of interaction. Never once had I thought to ask her how to say this or that in German, but now that I am able to communicate with her in the language, I have to admit it does make things a lot more exciting. Spending the time I have in Germany and having such a big part of my family being German, I have always been fascinated by the language even if I have never felt the need to learn it. But speaking it with my friend and now with family members makes learning German even more important to me, as well as helpful and fulfilling.

(Since I didn't get an opportunity to get a picture with Kathi, here is a picture I took the last time I was in Germany two summers ago. This is the beach behind my Aunt and Uncle's house in Kiel!)