Films and understanding

It's been a pretty filmy weekend for me.

Our little family watched a dubbed German version of Clint Eastwood's award-winning Million Dollar Baby, but nobody's German was good enough to understand much of what happened. We didn't have any subtitles to help us.

I started watching Silence of the Lambs in much the same way, and thought I might have a chance because I'd already seen it. But no.

We also saw the original English version of The Departed, which I enjoyed. Unfortunately, with our mixed-language party, I think I was the only one who really followed it all. DVDs with subtitles are the way to go, I say.

How I speak

I'd been living and studying here in Berlin for just a couple of weeks before I noticed that it felt weird to write in pure English. At home, I've started speaking German pretty much exclusively. It's a great, because it's visible progress.

In my first week, I could barely function in spoken German. The second week, I could understand most of what my flatmates said but only speak in the simplest possible terms (no past tense, for example; everything happens now!). As my fourth week begins, I'm feeling far more comfortable. I'm even starting to understand television.

It's suprisingly hard to resist dropping a whole bunch of German words into this post, but I'll try. I find myself thinking in German a lot of the time, or thinking in English with German grammar. I must now to my next class go.

Minor progress

I'm into my second week in Berlin and I think I'm settling in OK. My German is definitely improving: I can usually understand my flatmates when they speak German amongst themselves, although when I talk it's usually pretty simple stuff. I still get completely lost when a real German speaks, though; too many words, way too fast. I think it'll be a while before I understand television.

Berlin is an interesting city with some amazing buildings, old and new. Actually, the contrasts are evident everywhere, especially between the former East and West sides — even though the Berlin Wall fell some 15 years ago. Looking over the city from the roof of the Reichstag was a memorable experience — I'll post pictures if I can.

I still have only limited Internet access, so my e-mail backlog is growing (along with the number of photos I have yet to share).

I wouldn't want to leave you with nothing to read, though, so I might start posting from my secret archives.

Tchüss!