I don't believe there is anything in the whole earth that you can't learn in Berlin except the German language.--Mark Twain

Part of my experience this year was to improve my German, and I think I have. A little bit, anyway.

For the past four weeks, I studied German at the renowned Goethe Institut in Berlin. Every student's German knowledge is a little different. My German was learned at home, almost entirely informally, the exceptions being my attending German schools on Saturdays until I was about 15, which I never enjoyed, and one high school correspondence course, which I learned to dislike. (When I was 18, I started reading German magazines during the 1986 World Cup and have kept reading them, and other German material here and there, since.) The result of my German education, if we I can call it that, is that my pronunciation is quite good (I am sometimes mistaken for a Swiss person when I'm having a good day), my understanding of German is fairly good, my vocabulary is reasonable and my grammar is pretty atrocious. I have to say that everything, including my grammar, is a little better now.

The course was entertaining--aside from the grammar exercises, we discussed current events, listened to music, gave presentations (mine was about the € Euro) and there were plenty of opportunities to explore Berlin with other students.

The best part of the course was that I now have a pretty good understanding of what I have to work on: grammar. Sounds obvious, but it's pretty clear now that I have to learn German grammar from the ground up. And if that sounds like fun, you might want to read Mark Twain's account of German Language which is not surprisingly called The Awful German Language, and someone has collected even more quotes from Twain about German. Enjoy!

Another wonderful part of the course is that my eyes were opened up to a little bit of literature. Our class read Remarque's Der Nacht in Lissabon (The Night in Lisbon), and I also learned that my favourite author, David Foster Wallace, has been translated into German, including an essay of his, the titular essay from A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (translated as Schrecklich amüsant, aber in Zukunft ohne mich, or "Terribly enjoyable, but next time...without me"). DFW has an affinity for the Oxford English Dictionary, and it will be great fun to read the article again merely to see how it was translated. Not only will I read some DFW in German, but it's about time I read some Mark Twain as well. Twain's account of his travels in Germany is beautifully illustrated by a 20th century German cartoonist, and A Tramp Abroad is something the the GVPL has at home.

Later this year, I will return to the Goethe Institut (they're located throughout Germany) to complete an examination, probably at what is known as the B2 level. My class was the C.1 level, and although I was far ahead of many in my class in some areas, it was clear that most of my 13 classmates had learned German systematically, and recently (most of the students were between 18-26). There was a short control exam at the end of the course, and I did very well, but the B2 exam should be challenging.