Lost in Translation

Living in Germany is fun, but I am definitely understanding the whole foreign-person-lost-in-a-strange-world phenomenom. My german has improved a bit, but only slightly i feel. A lot of this has to do with the fact that I have been spending the majority of my time around English speakers or pretending to not understand German around German kids (at least i could hear them speaking german tho).

I must admit I do get a bit nervous when i have to speak German to a real-life German--which of course makes my already sloppy pronunciation and giant accent even more uncomprehensible. To be fair, I don't always have problem (especially not when I've been drinking ha ha) but it is quite frustrating when it does happen.

Today when I was ordering a taxi was a classic example of this problem:

Me: Ich mochte ein Taxi vom 45 Dresdner (pronounced: DRES -like Fez with a D- DNER) Strasse zum Bahnhof (in English: I would a like a taxi from 45 Dresdner St. to the Train Station)

Taxi Phone Man: Ich hab die Strasse Name nicht verstanden (I didn't understand the street name)

Me: Dresdner Strasse

TPM: Heh?

Me: DRES-DNER STRASSE

TPM: Oh. Dresdner Strasse! (pronounced DRAY-SDENAIR)

Me Ja, Genau.

TPM: Und die Name?

Me: Melissa

TPM: Maussi?

Me: No. MEL-ISS-A.

TPM: Maussi?

Me: Ja. Gut genug. (English: yeah, good enough).

TPM: Okay es kommt gleich (okay, its coming soon).



GAH. It sucks not being understood because it makes you feel like an idiot. Everything is also much harder over the phone--sounds less clear or something. Hopefully I will be getting better soon, now that the majority of my english-speaking friends (actually friends in general :( are gone (thankfully i've still got Bruna!).

Even though this is a German-to-English problem, I have SO MUCH empathy for this guy.