Thursday, September 18, 2008

German woes and Cherifa #2

I need to figure out what to do about German. I went to the Goethe Institute and talked to the Tunisian receptionist in German about which classes I could take, and it went a little something like this:

"Hi, I'd like to see your course atlas to enroll in a class."
"Wait, you're not German?"
"No, I'm American. But I speak German and I want to take a class."
"Why do you want to take a class? You already speak like a German."
"Uh, thank you- so what do you think I should do?"
"Ah! You could tutor German."
"I was thinking more along the lines of a conversation class I could be in."
"Oh. I don't think we offer classes for Germans. I think you should come back in 2 weeks and speak with Frau Abdelhamid."
"Vielen Dank."

He said they only have grammar classes and no real discussion classes, but that this lady would probably have some more ideas for me. I guess she's on vacation or something.

So then, I was walking outside my apartment and ran into the lady who lives across the street. She started speaking in Arabic, then switched to French, then to English. We were having a nice little chat and I complimented how good her English was. She told me she thinks her English is OK, but what she really wants to learn is German (she called it Dootch).

Whoooaa! NO ONE here wants to speak German. I told her she was in luck, because I could help her out if she wanted. She told me I will start giving her lessons once a week, but not now.

Ramadan is a bad month for learning, she told me. Her name is also Cherifa.

2 comments:

estherfkim said...

just wanted to say, i love your entries and i check often, so keep 'em coming!

i saw a sheep on campus today and thought of you.
actually that's a lie, but if i had seen one i would totally have thought of you.

esther

Antonio Candeliere said...

very good