Posts Tagged ‘German’

The most prominent thing that comes with living in a foreign country is for sure your accent. When we first moved her it pissed me off a lot that everyone asked us where we were from after we said a single sentence. Even the staff at Starbucks knew we weren’t american after we ordered a damn coffee. It took me some time to get along with this, but after a few weeks I kind of forgot about my accent.

I already told you that the language hasn’t been a real problem for us, but that we still have our moments. I have learned the hard way that the more you think about your accent and the way you talk, the worse it gets. So with time I kind of stopped fighting with myself, just talked and it got so much easier for me. Another side effect is that the more comfortable you get speaking a foreign language, the less people notice that this language is foreign to you.

Noone asked us where we are from just because of our accent in a long time. And today, when we went to a BBQ, a woman we talked to even thought I was american. When I told her I was german she was a little shocked and said that she didnt hear an accent at all!

These little steps are definitely just tiny steps in the right direction, but they make me proud. And the best: They make me feel more comfortable with talking english.

I actually waited for this to happen, but now that it’s really happening it creeps me out a bit. As the headline already says: My language barrier is finally beginning to crack. And with that I don’t mean that i had big problems speaking english before. The only problem was that I didn’t really feel comfortable doing it. I think it is absolutely normal to feel this way in the beginning and everyone who already moved to the US might now what I am talking about: The biggest problem you will have with the language is that you don’t feel comfortable speaking it. I always listen to myself while I talk, think oh my god I sound horrible and then begin to get insecure about it and talk crap.

But this week I had more than one moment where I kind of caught myself speaking english as if it were the most natural thing ever! I found myself in the middle of a conversation before I even realized that I wasn’t talking german, but english. And this feels amazing and strange at the same time! I really waited for that damn uncomfortable feeling to go away for a long time. But now that it begins to vanish I want to hold on to it for a bit longer.

As you may know Flo and I had a real easy start here in the US and so far everything worked out perfect. But there still are things that make me realize again and again that this is not our home country. The language was one part of that. And with every barrier falling down this whole emigration thing becomes more and more real! And that is kind of scary! Even if I still love being caught in this whole adventure!

I listened to a song on the radio this week and the lyrics had the headline I chose for this post in it. I think that there isn’t a saying that can possibly describe better what this whole immigration thing felt like for us – and still does! Moving to a foreign country (in which you never lived before) sure sounds beyond difficult. But aren’t the difficult things and experiences what makes life so exciting and worth living?

The whole moving to the US thing and living here was kind of easy for us. Everything worked out so well and I am still beyond thrilled about that. But there still are those little moments, which make it difficult. Even if everyone is friendly over here, you sometimes still feel left out. Because you are just not as open as the Americans are and that sometimes makes it hard to naturally connect with people (like you see it happening all the time). We may have no problem at all with the language, but still you are so tired in the evenings, because it’s so more challenging to work in a different language. And to switch back to german every time you wanna speak with your partner or your family.

After two months of living here I know for sure that this was the right path to take in life and that all the hard moments and all the tears were totally worth it. But what I like the most is that I wasn’t scared too much to take that step. That I challenged myself with a journey like that. And that I (so far) made it through without getting bruised too hard!

Yes, leaving your home and starting all over new is definitely difficult. But is it impossible? When you do it open-minded, well planned and with the right sense of intelligence, it absolutely isn’t!