Personal Narrative German Language Immersion
Regret, something that one grieves the loss of seems to imply a deep emotional state, an inability to accomplish or even a sense of failure. I prefer to think of regret as a missed opportunity as is shown in the following tale.
In 1993 my husband was offered the opportunity to work in Switzerland. It was a great chance to extend his life’s time’s work to another market. After many discussions about the “Pros and Cons” we decided to take on the challenge and he accepted the position. Two of our sons would be in college as of September of that year, leaving the youngest to travel with us. We justified it would be a great experience for him, so the planning and moving process began. Ken, my husband, had taken German language in high school so had the basic understanding of the language. I on the other hand had had no prior education. The Swiss company, in our best interest, felt it was essential to immerse us in a language school in Berlin, for a month, for intensive schooling. We had to go in July and we needed to enroll together. Initially it sounded exciting but as we got closer to July the pressure mounted, furniture needed to be stored, cars sold, kids and college needed to be organized etc; etc.
When July finally came I was harassed and not mentally prepared for Berlin. The intent was for us to stay with a German family, go to classes and move to Switzerland with enough of the language to be able to hold a conversation. I had visions of a pleasant home with friendly people, small classes and sightseeing with my executive husband but that was shattered on arrival. The place we were taken too was clearly an economic enterprise to accommodate teenagers just glad to be away from home. The classes were held in the middle of a very busy, hot, city only reachable by traveling what seemed like hours as a mole underground and because of Ken’s prior knowledge, would conclude by sending us in different directions till the end of each day. Again I was not mentally prepared and within 48 hours was ready to retreat to Denver and my comfortable home and life in Evergreen.
On the afternoon of September 29, 1943, Herbert Pundik’s childhood ended. On that day, his school’s headmaster dismissed teenage Pundik and his fellow Jewish classmates after he learned about the upcoming deportation of Danish Jews. He rushed home and when he arrived, he found his parents and siblings already packed to leave; his father had learned of the news earlier in the day from a friend who attended morning service at the synagogue and heard the rabbi’s warning of impending danger. The warning, although appreciated, sent Copenhagen’s Jewish population into a panic. According to an excerpt from a young Danish girl’s unpublished diary: “But today it is different. Today you are a refugee. The quiet days, they finished yesterday. When
REGRET presents as an epic dramatic, cartel crime film. Comparable films are THE GODFATHER and GOODFELLAS. The main character being of Cuban descent makes this script stand out as being more unique.
emotion is achieved. There is a great sense of not regret but of something that the
Through the process of acquiring knowledge in this course, I have learned countless aspects about my own self. Amidst the very challenges I faced, the act of communication, management, and leadership, are among them. Being bilingual, my communication skills are on par yet at times hinder me from articulating my intention precisely as I have meant them. With every socialization I have made, I have striven to do better and to be better. I have learned that although you may consider yourself “fluent” in a foreign language, there are phrases or intonations to which come across as something entirely different from what you intended to say causing the message to be lost between the barrier of the two communicators.
Schwartz, Leslie. Surviving the hell of Auschwitz and Dachau: a teenage struggle toward freedom from hatred.. S.l.: Lit Verlag, 2013. Print.
A survivor of the Holocaust, named Mr. Greenbaum, tells his experience to visitors of the Holocaust Museum. “Germans herded his family and other local Jews in 1940 to the Starachowice ghetto in his hometown of Poland when he was only 12. Next he was transported to a slave labor camp where he and his sister were moved while the rest of the family was sent to die at Treblinka. By the age of 17 he had been enslaved in five camps in five years, and was on his way to a sixth, when American soldiers freed him in 1945”. Researchers have recorded about 42,500 Nazi ghettos and camps throughout Europe. “We knew before how horrible life in the campus and ghettos was” said Hartmut Bergoff, director of the German Historical Institute, “but the numbers are unbelievable.
2nd Part Hall, Allan Incredible Stories of young Jews who hid in the heart of Nazi Berlin The Daily Record 23 March 2013 www.dailyrecord.co.uk Rahel
My most life changing experience was when I moved from the sunny skies of North Carolina to The Blizzard, more formally known as Germany in the middle of my second grade year. My Step-Dad was active duty in the military. Of course, he had to drag us with him. He flew out to Germany first so for about three weeks it was just Mom and I. Just about every day Mom would say “Two more weeks till Germany, Tarix”, “One more week till Germany, Tarix” (Rich), which I never took to heart. I was too caught up in deciding what my Barbie was going to wear that day and riding my new tricycle to have time to process her words. Ignorance was bliss until the movers came to our house and packed up all my memories into big brown boxes. The night before
We arrived in Greensboro on a Sunday afternoon, checked into a small apartment, and unpacked our suitcases. The next morning, I was thrown into my first day of middle school. Jetlagged, nervous, and with a very limited ability to speak English, I spent most of the day asking people to repeat themselves. While I had taken some English classes in Germany, I found that
Regret is a powerful word and an even bigger motivator. Regret of things not done or chances not taken can
“Success doesn’t happen overnight.” Apparently, the Germans did not get that memo. On the morning of August 13, 1961 police and soldiers in the city’s Soviet sector began temporarily crowding streets and fortifying alleyways with trucks, tanks, bricks, and barbed wire. In addition, the asphalt and cobblestones on the linking roads were torn up. Perplexed residents observed in distress as their own c...
At the beginning of the semester it had been over six years since I had been in an English class, So naturally filled with panic and discomfort with the subject I began the class with low personal expectations. However putting forth my best effort I attempted to take everything presented to me in stride. Things that were problems to begin with were Grammar, Sounding arrogant, according to a pretest, and staying on the subject during a paper. Things that sparked my interest are peer reviews and using the meal plan. With those things being said I’d like to go into further detail about how I’ve felt about my time spent and performance.
Learning a new language isn’t always easy. It has it’s up and down moments but once I learned that new language I felt accomplished and a lot of new opportunities open for me. My point is that learning English for me wasn’t easy, but once I learned English, I was able to help out my parents more and a bunch of new doors opened for me. You can say by knowing English I had a little more power now at home because they depended a lot on me now but it also felt great just to help them out with their English.
There are many different types of events that shape who we are as writers and how we view literacy. Reading and writing is viewed as a chore among a number of people because of bad experiences they had when they were first starting to read and write. In my experience reading and writing has always been something to rejoice, not renounce, and that is because I have had positive memories about them.
I was born and raised in Al-Ahsa in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia. I lived there until I became twenty-three then I moved to Abha in the Southern Province. My family is originally from Al-baha which is also in the Southern Province. I acquired the Arabic Eastern dialect when I was a child to talk to my peers and teachers in Al-Ahsa, however at home I spoke my parents' dialect that (which) is very different from the Eastern Province and from other Southern Province’s dialects. When I was at school I had different social relationships with people from different places in Saudi Arabia that lasts until I graduate from high school. They all speak different dialects and accents; therefore I acquired different pronunciations, different words and different expressions. After my marriage, I moved to Abha. I used to be a teacher and I communicated with wide range of people who have different backgrounds and therefore different cultures. My Eastern dialect did not help to survive in such an environment. So I tried to create a dialect that is more understood by people in Abha. Therefore, living in different regional dialects makes me end up with having a mixture of dialects and accents that makes it hard for the Saudi listener to predict where I am originally from.