Ich heisse Caroline. Wie heisst du?

Ich heisse Caroline. Wie heisst du?

First lesson in Beginning German at the Piedmont Adult School this week. My name is Caroline. What is your name? But I already knew that.

Kiefer and I attended the first of 10 weekly German classes on Wednesday. I like the instructor and there are six students in the class. It's going to be pretty rudimentary for me, covering things I already know (alphabet, numbers, basic phrases) and I was, at first, a little disappointed. But I've figured out what the major lesson will be for me. To be in the moment. To have to listen to an actual person asking me a question I can't predict in a language I don't know and formulate a response for that real, live person, right then. And to do this with different people - different voices, different inflections, different questions.

I studied Latin and French in high school, but don't recall being put on the spot. Perhaps I've blocked it out. Classes were larger and the work focused on reading and writing, reciting already translated answers rather than having to think on my feet. I earned good grades, but nothing stuck.

My tendency is to continue in this way. I'm good at hunkering down with a text book and barreling through conjugations and declensions. I excel at listening to language lessons and talking back to the computer to practice pronunciation. All of that can be done very nicely in my head, in my home, in my comfort zone.

I've said "Ich heisse Caroline" many times to myself and I've asked the computer its name about as often. I felt completely different saying the phrase and asking the question in class.

But, to get the alphabet and numbers down in 10 weeks isn't fast enough for me, for us, so we're using a different approach - class, Rosetta Stone, and we're hoping to find someone to do a weekly German-only-dinner with us. Holy @!#$#, that seems scary.

Too much? Too many approaches at once? I have no idea, but I suppose we'll see where we are in 10 weeks.