Learning German is hard. We all know that. But back when I was in my first German class in 2012, I remember learning a few basics about grammar and verb conjugation, and thinking to myself, “Hey, maybe I’m making some progress! Maybe I’ll actually learn this ugly bastard!”
Oh silly little American nerd — I had no idea what I was in for. German keeps getting more and more complex the deeper you go, and unless you’ve been doing a perfect job of memorizing those godforsaken gender-based articles along the way, you will make mistakes every single time you open your yap and try to speak it.
But my wife, God bless her, has been 110% supportive the entire time. Never a discouraging word. Always telling me how great I’m doing, how I’m learning so much, and how I will become fluent someday. She’s fantastic like that. She still has to correct me when I make big mistakes, however, which is why our conversation back in May of 2012 went like this: We had just come home from a trip to the beach and were unpacking our bags, when suddenly I had to go poop really bad. Like, Red Alert bad. So I dropped the bags, pointed my finger to the sky and proudly announced:
ME: “Ich gehe zu scheißen!” (“I’m going to shit!”)
…to which my wife replied…
THE WIFE: “Good job. That is right, but it is very rude.”
Oh God, My Wife Is German. 
Okay – this was downright hilarious (once again) – and I think your wife has the most admiring patience in the world. I tend to correct people when they say something wrong and I know that’s rude too – to be such a smartass all the time.
*sigh*
Sometimes I wish I would care!!
;-)
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Glad you liked it, Raani! Yeah, it really is hard to know when to correct someone — especially a foreign language speaker. It takes a lot of courage to just go for it, knowing you’re making mistakes. I understand completely.
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So funny! I feel your pain, though. I’m back in Germany for the first time in twenty years. When I was last here I was a fluent Au-Pair-Mädchen. I mean – Germans thought I was a German for the last four gloriously fluent months of that year. And now I realise that der, die und das deserted me long ago and I’m swimming (drowning?) in a sea of nouns without their articles.
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Oh God no! The articles abandon you without consistent use? This is not good news, Silelooksup. Not only are they hard for me to learn, but they won’t even stick around? JEEZ.
Thank you for reading and commenting! Have a great day!
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