kaput

 oh, I definitely broke through some barriers with Deutch today. The pressure of Frau Lonnes being around and knowing that I had to really do it actually made me speak conversationally a little more. I can understand her about 60% now, whereas a week ago it was like 20%. Also, hanging out with people with more Deutsch experience is good for me! One of the other people from Cultura Wien, a Serbian girl named Melizia, has been hanging around my group for the last few days. She speaks next to no English, but I can understand her German almost perfectly because she speaks so clearly. Understanding the language feels a lot different to me than I thought it would. I guess I assumed it would just transform into English in my head, because English is all I know so it's the purest form of language, for me. But no, my brain just absorbs it and somehow makes me know what's going on. When I make myself believe that I understand people talking to me, I do much better. Like in the Flohmarkt today, when I asked the sellers "Wie weil costet es?" it was difficult for me to catch the numbers they said (like thinking the Rucksack was €4,50 instead of €45,00 lols (i got it down to €20 though!)), but when they said more things about the items I could intuitively understand what they were saying. Basically. It's awesome to feel this kind of progress in less than 7 days!!!! I really, REALLY want to continue German next semester. It might not work out though :(