Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Expectations of the Schwabenland and My Course


So, Germany. I've been here for about 5 days now and I must say, most of the differences between here and Australia are somewhat subtle. More just the way people go about everything. So I guess I could say that's something that I've already learnt, but more importantly I should say what I expect to learn. 

Ideally I want to learn much of the language, all the little things that make it a real spoken language, not something so official and dusty to be learnt out of books. But i want to consolidate my Hoch Deutsch as well. So I guess I could say that I want and expect to learn much linguistically.

Really though, I have to say I expect to learn the most about the people. Like I said earlier, I have a feeling like Germans simply go about their lives in a different way to Australians. For instance, I’ve already learnt that Germans have no fear of the dark in relation to public transport and being out. Though I can only attribute it to the short days (sun-up at 0815 and sun-down at 1700), if they sought to be home, or something of the like, before dark, life would be impractical.

On the topic of public transport, it blows my mind how much better D-Bahn is than Transperth. For starters, transport around the clock. The trains are also better quality and always, always, on time. The only issue I’ve had with the public transport so far is that is a bit confusing is how complex the maps and ticket buying system is, but understandably so given the magnitudes of complexity it is bigger and so on from ours in Perth. In fact I will add this to the list of things I wish to learn about, I want to understand the German train system perfectly before I leave.

Well, that’s what I have on my mind about that today, apologies if it’s a little dry everyone. Thanks for reading.

Kai

And this is my favourite song today too (I like to give a Song-Of-The-Day)'


4 comments:

  1. That song is cool.
    Also I agree with you about the train system. Although it is confusing, it is really easy to get anywhere you need to go because it is so well structured. I hope you get everything out of this course that you expect to. =)

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  2. Yeah I think I am already getting a lot out of it, like just the sheer amount of naturalisation of how I speak, it's hard not to just use Sie for everyone because the verbs are easier. :/

    And we're learning so much slang

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  3. The most confusing thing about the trains is the tickets when you start mixing regional (vvs) and DB trains. Luckily, the ticket offices are healpful.

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  4. Augh yes the ticket offices are super helpful! I agree entirely. In perth I feel like they barely know what you're asking them.

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