Sprechen Sie Englisch?

Yes, I knew that my host mother didn't speak English before I got on the plane to head to Germany. But somehow, I just didn't grasp the reality of the prospect until I was right in the middle of it. As it turns out, pre-departure stress, lack of sleep and jet lag are not condusive to an optomistic outlook in a new/uncomfortable situation. So at first, I was a little shaken. The entirety of our conversation that night consisted of two words, "Danke" and "Bitte". Very polite, but entirely unhelpful when you can't figure out why the phone wont put a call through to your parents and you don't know how to connect to the internet. On top of that, she left shortly after bringing me home because she had a friend's wedding party that evening. She invited me along, but would be out later than I planned on being awake. All this I learned from her daughter Anna, who came over briefly to translate what she could. So needless to say, I was a little shaken. I did get everything figured out eventually, but I was not looking forward to an entire Sunday of "Danke" and "Bitte".

I was surprised then, when Sunday morning came and everything was much better, as things tend to be when you're well rested. She had a dictionary and I had a phrasebook, so our conversations evolved to finding the most important word of the sentence, translating it and the other of us using every possible context clue to pull out the idea behind the word. We walked to a bakery to get bread for breakfast, which took a long time since we had to break to translate so often. She even showed me how to take the bus and find the AIB, told me where I should visit in town that day, and told me when to be home for dinner. Altogether I was rather impressed with our communication abilities.

As the time has passed, I have realized that I am so lucky to have Erna as my host mother. She gets up with me every morning for breakfast, no matter how early I have to be up, and she often offers to drive me in the mornings so that we can take out time eating in the morning. She gives me my full independance and she never gets bothered on the occasions where I can't say when I'll be home. Thanks to our dictionaries, the visits from her English speaking daughter Elisabeth, and some German lessons I had at the AIB, our communication gets better and better so that I look forward to the breakfasts and dinners that we spend together. I must say, I am glad that Elisabeth and Anna live in Bonn and stop by every now and then, they have been so kind and helpful. Now that Erna's granddaughter, Carlotta is visiting, I'm glad I can at least somewhat communicate. Altogether, I feel quite lucky to be more immersed in German language and culture than some of my friends more Americanized host families. I will miss Erna, and her family a lot when I have to leave.