Why Did I Learn German?
If you are interested in my language journey and why I decided to learn German as an English native speaker you will find some insights in here ...
As a British person who speaks at least one other language well (German) and a further quite well (French), I am the exception rather than the norm. But why did I stick to learning German throughout school and decide that it would be what I studied at university and use in my career? Why – like so many of my contemporaries – did I not just get the required exam pass at age 16 and then move onto something else? The answer when I think about it carefully is partly to do with coincidence and partly good luck.
When I started to learn German, I was at an English boarding school. My father was in the Royal Air Force and my parents happened to be stationed in Germany. Upon reaching the age of 13, my year group was split into three classes (German, Spanish or Art) - using no discernable method that we could make out - and I was instructed to do Spanish.
Learning a Second Language as an English Native Speaker
My dad had other ideas and made a quick phone call. I was reassigned to the German class. After all, he argued, Spanish would be a wonderful language to learn, but surely it made sense that I studied German, especially when I could spend my holidays ordering “Pommes mit Mayo” at the local Freibad or wander around after my mum’s shopping trolley at Marktkauf staring at the bags of Haribo and asking myself what on earth the boxes of “Katzenzungen” could possibly be.
And I loved Germany; we all did. We loved Karneval and we loved the white lights used to decorate the trees in December. We adored the Christmas markets – even if we almost froze to death after the first visit and had to make an emergency visit to C&A for salopettes. We still eat our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. We loved the Black Forest in summer and were fascinated by the carved wooden trolls in Berchtesgaden. We laughed about mistakenly ordering ‘Matjesfilet’ thinking it would be fish in breadcrumbs, but, on the other hand, we were thrilled to try freshly caught ‘Forelle’ and ‘Spezi’ and ‘Currywurst’. We liked to be able to say “danke” and “bitte” and “Du bist der Allerbeste”.
We learned about recycling, lugging all our bottles back to the shop in their green crates for handfuls of pfennigs. And, if we happened to be at home, my brother and I sat in on the ‘Kaffee und Kuchen’ mornings that my mum arranged with the German ladies from the local town. We ate too many slices of the cake made with Quark as we listened to the mish-mash of German and English and the clink of coffee cups.
My mum is still in touch with many of these ladies today and that, I think, is the key to why I decided to keep learning German. It really wasn’t because of the lists of vocabulary in school books or the fact that I could remember the genitive form of ‘der’ ‘die’ and ‘das’. It was the little moments of life, the insights into another way to do things, to think about things, and to enjoy things.
The language was an integral part of all that. Without it, I would still have loved Germany, but possibly as a stranger, just passing through. Knowing the language (even not half as much as I would like) means that the country and its people will always be in my heart.
There have been decisions I’ve made in life which have had both negative and positive consequences. As much as I wrack my brain, I cannot think of one single negative thing that has come from learning German.
So, to the man who insisted I changed classes and learn German, I really do need to say, “Ich danke Dir, Papa. Du bist der Allerbeste”. (And a family secret: he also ate my Matjesfilet so I didn’t have to.)
