German Language Lessons Were a Big Help for My Trip Abroad
When I was a junior in college, I decided to make a two-week trip one summer to Germany and Austria to do some sight-seeing and indulge one of my greatest passions: classical music. I did not speak a word of German when I made the decision to go, so I decided to take some German language lessons so I would would be able to communicate on a rudimentary level at least.
I spoke to the German professor at my university to tell her what my plans were and ask if she gave any private German language lessons. Fortunately for me she did, and I started going to her office twice a week for the lessons.
Perhaps it was my desire to learn the language or that she was a great instructor, but I picked up on it very quickly, and after just a few months I was already speaking the language at a passable conversational level and felt very confident as I got ready to go on my trip.
My instructor said that she was impressed with the level of proficiency that I had achieved in my German language lessons and said the only thing I needed to remember was that, like Americans, Germans had different accents, and because I had only spoken with her, I may have some difficulty understanding some of the different dialects I would encounter.
A friend of mine who is an international student from Sweden told me that my German was pretty good as well, but said that I may find difficulty speaking the language to native speakers when I first got there. She said she could not explain why that is, but that it had happened to her when she first arrived in America.
Suddenly I was not so confident, but I figured I had nothing to lose, and I did not want to experience the trip with the sense of isolation that not being able to communicate with other people can bring. I decided to put what I had learned in my German language lessons to work when I was in Germany and Austria regardless of how people reacted.
When I arrived in Germany, I had a very pleasant surprise. My instructor's sister was there in Frankfurt waiting for me. She had a sign with my name on it, and I was a little shocked to see that, so at first, I wondered if by some strange coincidence there was somebody else on the plane with my name.
As it turned out, she was waiting for me, and told me that her sister knew I was nervous about traveling to Germany and Austria without knowing anybody or fully understanding the language, so she was going to play tour guide while I was in Germany. I was very relieved.
She introduced me to her friends, and told them that I had been taking German language lessons, which made speaking not nearly as hard. They all complimented me on my accent and said that I was doing very well, and I did not find it difficult to converse at all.
When I went to Austria, I saw many of the concert halls and got along just fine. I still think about those German language lessons and how much they helped me on my trip abroad, and I am quite grateful to my instructor and her sister.