Sunday, September 23, 2007

Reading Material


Moving to a country where you don't speak, read or understand the language is a bit like being a child again. In some ways it is liberating, and in others it is frustrating.

In an attempt to build on and reinforce the German we absorbed in the past month, we trotted off to the book shop to get some reading material that was at 'our level'.

I'm pleased to announce that 'our level' is roughly that of a 7 year old, although 10 pages into my book, I'm beginning to wish I'd picked something much simpler....like 'Miffy at the Seaside'.

So it is 'Ich bin hier bloß die Katze' for me. I'm pretty sure this is going to take me longer to read than 'A Fringe of Leaves' by Patrick White, which currently holds the record as my slowest read yet, at just over 6 months.

Language acquisition is slow, and I am in awe of those people who have a head for languages. I wish I was one of them. But for now, I'm firmly in language Kindergarten.

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