Busy Moms of the KMC: The First Step to Really Learning German

The first step to really learning German is to take a class. With a live human being teaching it.

Bonus points if said human is funny and helpful and encouraging.

Since starting my German language class at Grace Studio this semester, I'm actually learning German. Which seems kind of obvious, but seriously, it's significant. In the three and a half years I've lived here, I've dabbled in Rosetta Stone and a little bit of Pimsleur.

I've also given up at various points.

I was sad to do it, but I knew I needed to cut myself some slack while the girls were little - I'm pretty sure it's relatively impossible to master a second language with two under two. 

But I really love our host nation and I always cried a little inside that I was "that American" who lives here and never learns. So so lame.

So, since both girls are at German kindergarten most of the day now and since I'm working for Jenny Doyle as Grace Studio's photographer, I am getting my language learning butt in gear.

You will not believe how much I love German class with Jenny. 

I seriously regret not making the time to take a class earlier. I feel like as I learn more and more from Jenny, I'm a caterpillar turning into a beautiful German-speaking butterfly Schmetterling!

I've been finding myself going out of my way to work what few German phrases I have memorized into "normal" conversations with the Germans around me. Being able to speak more German makes me so much more courageous when I am out and about in this beautiful country. 

So seriously, my advice is to sign up for a class at Grace Studio. You might be the kind of person who can limp along with Rosetta Stone, but you're seriously going to crush it with Jenny.

And if you don't live in the KMC but you want to learn a language, find yourself a native speaker and start talking!

Do you live in another country? How did you best learn the language? If you live in the KMC, do you agree that it's almost unfairly easy to be lazy here since everyone switches to English for us so quickly?