Allison Goes To Germany

About Allison.

Being foreign.

Posted on 07.16.10 3:11AM under Uncategorized

It was very weird having an experience many many people trying to temporarily live in another country have done. The man assisting me was a little rude, and assuming I spoke no German, spoke entirely to Michaela the entire time. Which was sort of nice, but also a little frustrating.

And now a tangent - I thought the program advisor here was way rude when I asked him for help. He said I could not be helped here, I had to go to Bonn. He told me to called the immigration office in Bonn. I asked him the chances of their speaking English. He told me “You speak German, you’ll be fine.”

Yeah, so I have taken 4 years (3 consecutive) of German language classes. I can discuss grammatical concepts and the weather and how I feel and understand how other people feel and order food and read a cookbook written in German, but I must have been absent when we completed the “becoming legal in Germany” unit.

So I called the immigration office in Bonn on Monday. Did not understand most of it except “your au pair family will help you. good bye”

On Tuesday Michaela came over and she spent about an hour calling Bonn and then Lg. We were told to come in to the Lg office on Thursday. Normally I would need to be in Bonn, but they really wanted to help me here in Lg. so they said I could start the process here.

After about 3 hours spent dealing with this process yesterday, I just need to get a biometric passport photo taken and bring it in. I was told the best time is on Tuesdays at 8 because not so many people are waiting in line. Herr M. (who helped me and will naturally be on vacation for the next two weeks) told me I need to ask his colleague for a Fiktionsbescheinigung, aka a temporary visa, when I come back next week with my photos and twenty euro.

There was a huge difference in his behavior and the behavior of the woman downstairs who normally deals only with Germans. She was downright polite. I understand that it is frustrating trying to speak to people who don’t understand you completely, but this is a very humbling experience.

This is why it is frustrating for me: I am a smart girl, but I can’t express myself in German like an educated speaker would. I can’t neatly deal with things. I forget how to say things like “at least” (there are two ways for two different things), but still. However I understand about 75% of the non-bureaucratic discussion around me. I am making steps towards something resembling German fluency. Some days they are giant leaps, some days they are baby steps. Some days I forget what I have learned and I need to review. Some days I learn slang like “leck mich” which will also come in handy next time some toadface mofo on the train calls me a fat ass. At this point in my language acquisition timeline, there are just no logical further steps to take. There is no systematic way to learn.

Ugh.