#73 – „Ich habe die deutsche Sprache gehasst“ – mit Rachel Young
Speaker 1 ( 00:00 ) Fear, uncertainty, doubt. You’ve probably already gotten to know all of this in connection with language learning. The only question is how you deal with these feelings. Do you allow them to destroy you or do you manage to control them? For today’s episode of German Chatter I met up with Rachel from England. She now lives in Switzerland and she was in German coaching with me for 20 weeks and I think she speaks great German. The problem is, she didn’t see it that way for a long time. We talked about where her doubts came from. What positive and negative experiences she had with the language and how she managed to almost overcome her fears. Speaker 1 ( 00:54 ) Welcome to German Chatter. I am Flemming, German coach for Natural Flow and German. This podcast is for you if you want to improve your listening comprehension, expand your vocabulary, get to know real everyday German and find out more about Germany. You can find the transcripts to read along at www. naturalfuentgerman.com. By the way, German chatter is also available on YouTube. And now have fun listening. Speaker 1 ( 01:22 ) Hello dear German learners, hello dear German learners. Nice that you tuned in again and are part of a new episode of Deutsches Geplapper. Today I’m sitting here with Rachel. Hello, Rachel. Speaker 2 ( 01:36 ) Hello, Flemming, how are you? Speaker 1 ( 01:38 ) Yes, very good. Nice to see you again, finally! We said goodbye at the end of June. You were in my coaching until the end of June. We spent exactly 20 weeks together. 20 very, very intensive weeks. And overall it was a lot of fun, right? Speaker 2 ( 02:00 ) Lots of fun. And I learned a lot. for 20 weeks. Yes, it was a lot of work, but I really enjoyed it. Honestly. Speaker 1 ( 02:10 ) Exactly. You were also, we discovered somehow, you were actually the only one who was in every group meeting over this long period of time. That was also a really strong performance. So you were really always there. In the individual sessions anyway, but also in the group sessions. Yes, not everyone can do it by far and that’s why you definitely went through with it really, really and in the end you rewarded yourself somehow for it. You have just now, you registered for a B2 exam during the coaching and… Speaker 2 ( 02:45 ) A huge challenge for me. Speaker 1 ( 02:49 ) Yes, a huge challenge. That brings us straight to the topic of you being very excited before the exam. You put a lot of pressure on yourself. Can you tell me very briefly why was that? Why were you under so much pressure? And yes, how did it end up going? Speaker 2 ( 03:11 ) Yes, it was difficult for me. I have lived in Switzerland for almost 20 years and during this time I still have not mastered the German language. And that was an achievement for me, a huge challenge. And yes, I had, I struggled for years and I tried to learn German, without success. And at school I learned German and I did pretty well in school. Then I went to university and I learned German in the first year and that was terrible. Horrible experience for me and the teacher was very strict and he explained to us what we need to do and then he waited and waited and waited for the answers. And that doesn’t help at all. That doesn’t do anything. If we did something wrong, he would just say „no, wrong“ and wait for the right answer. And yes, a bad experience for me. And then I moved to Switzerland and I worked in an international school where all the staff had to learn German and I was in a German course again and that was difficult for me too. There were two different levels. A beginner’s course and advanced. And because I had studied German at university, I had to go to the advanced group. And it was too difficult for me. I had maybe A2 level and in the course it was maybe B2, C1 and that was too much. And we had to pay a penalty if we made mistakes and for me that was a disaster. It was only 50 centimes or so, but still. It was humiliating and it was embarrassing for me. And after this course I said „Never again, never again, I won’t learn German anymore.“ And I suddenly realized that it is possible to live in a country without knowing the language. Life won’t be easy, but it is possible. And then, after 18 years, I thought okay, not anymore, not anymore. And then I had a conversation with my partner and he has the same problem in French. He lives in France. And he said „Okay, now or never. You learn German, I’ll learn French.“ And then he said, „Let’s get uncomfortable. It will be uncomfortable, but maybe it has to be that way.“ And then I found your podcast. And I signed up. Speaker 1 ( 07:00 ) Very good. Very good. And I would like to go into it again straight away because you also said that you can live in a foreign country without knowing the language. And here you have to say that everyone probably defines the word “control” differently now. But you haven’t lived in the country for 18 years without knowing the language. That would probably be your definition again. Speaker 3 ( 07:29 ) Yes, exactly. Speaker 1 ( 07:30 ) Exactly. Yes, because I think everyone who has listened here for these few minutes will notice that you definitely know the language. But that’s why I wanted to do this episode with you. Because I also noticed