From time to time I would take pictures of German grammar in action, as if to prove to myself that it was for real.

When I arrived in Germany, I had not formally studied the language since my senior year of college.  (And let’s just say that wasn’t yesterday.)  I thought having two solid years of university level Deutsch under my belt was going to make slipping into the language pretty easy.  Not so much, as it turns out. 

There are real differences between how students at the same skill level talk amongst themselves in a classroom, and how the language is used by native speakers.  This seems incredibly obvious as I write it, but my senior year German class felt pretty confident that we knew how to speak some Deutsch.  Then I got off the plan at Tegel and wondered if I had ever heard the language before at all.

Here are a few things that I discovered over the last three months that I think you should know before you deplane:

German 101: Yes and No

No one says “Ja” or “Nein.” If you say them, people will know what you mean. But from what I can tell Deutscher only use them when they’re being very emphatic about something. “Ne” will suffice for no. And you should definitely say “Genau” if you mean yes.  “Stimmt” will also work.  But I can’t recall at time I ever heard a native speaker say “Ja” to me.

What is a thing?

Americans love the cognate “ein Ding” which means ‘a thing’ and is very useful if you’re trying to describe something you don’t know how to translate.  But guess what?  The Germans are much, much more likely to say “eine Sache,” - which also means “a thing.”  You will hear it constantly, so be ready.

Look it up

Another thing you will hear all the time is the verb “gucken” which means too look. This is used for everything, from “look over here” to “look it up.” Unfortunately, it is pronounced with a very sharp initial “g” so that it sounds a whole lot like “Kuchen.” I would like to spare you the enormous amount of time I spent during my first two weeks, deeply confused by everyone’s obsession with cake.

Fluchen

One evening toward the end of my stay in Berlin, I took a casual crash course swearing (“fluchen”).  I found it surprisingly revealing.  When you’re in the process of learning a language and listening to someone speak, the words your recognize snap into focus and ones you don’t are like fuzz.  I could not believe how much it took the static out of bar chat and casual conversation when I recognized a few of the many ways to call someone a dumbass, and handful of the infinite uses of “Scheiβe.” Seriously.  That hour was time well spent!