Können Sie das bitte wiederholen

My German is really not very good, but I do try. I've taken a couple of courses, and I tried to take another this year but it wasn't as advertised and I dropped out. Each time we travel to Germany, I find I'm able to understand more of what I hear, although I'm still not comfortable stringing together a sentence.

And now we're in Austria. Where they speak German. Allegedly.

Oy, it was like travelling to Scotland! Or Conception Bay!! The German here is so different from the High German German I've been trying to learn. The accent is actually quite lovely and lilting, but my ears are really struggling with it. In fact, I'd forgotten that there was an Austrian couple in our prenatal class, and we'd at first thought they were Swedish because of their accents.

It isn't just the accent, though. Some words are different. For instance, I've figured out that Marillen is the same as Aprikose, which is the German German word for apricot.

Even Werner has had trouble with it. He'd be the first to say that his German has gotten rusty with disuse (although he usually speaks German with Jakob, so he'll be using it more and more), but he has also had to adjust to the accent and dialect.

But - hooray - I've proven that I can survive on my own in a German-speaking environment! Very reassuring as we prepare for the half-year in Kiel.