We have decided! Now what?
Now that we have decided we are moving and have set up a joint savings account (hooray for acting like "adults"!), what do we do next?
In short, we save money and learn as much German as humanly possible. There is no point at this stage, more than a year out, to look for a job or an apartment. I can't think of a single company or landlord who would hold either one of those things for more than a week let alone a year!
There are many steps to getting a Visa (which I will talk about in our next post) and in Germany there is no skipping ahead and getting one before we go. So......we wait. We wait until we are physically in the country to start the process of immigration.
In the meantime, we learn! Duolingo has been great in that aspect. The app helps you learn a number of languages and, more importantly, is free! I have zipped through a number of lessons because I took a year of Germanic college so I am pretty familiar with the basics. What I like most about Duolingo is that it helps with speaking, writing/translating both in German and English, matching up words, and listening. I try to do a lesson a day, if I miss a day or two I just double up the next time I do a lesson. The lessons in the app, once you finish, turns gold. After a week or so it will go back to looking like it did when you started so you can keep practicing and get better. You can also invite friends to join and compete for 1st place standings depending on the lessons you complete.
What is really discouraging is listening to someone who is fluen, that speaks quickly. RhinoSpike is the inducer of this fear of not knowing what I'm hearing mainly because they are not talking slow. This site is basically a bunch of audio files in a number of different languages on the most random things (I listened to one about Maria Theresa the other day). What is helpful is the transcript
underneath to follow along with so I guess that's not too bad. When I was listening I told Stephen we
are never going to learn and be on this level in a year! I keep thinking that we are going to be so overwhelmed then I took (and continue to take) a deep breath and remember Germans are really wonderful and for the most part (in most urban areas) speak English. We are going to be ok!
We are still so excited for this adventure! Both Stephen and I are pretty thick skinned so we are ready for any and all challenges thrown our way. Can we just leave already?!
This is just a picture that my friend took recently in Southeast Bavaria....it's incredible and I can't wait to see this with my own eyes! Thanks, Ryan for letting me share!
In short, we save money and learn as much German as humanly possible. There is no point at this stage, more than a year out, to look for a job or an apartment. I can't think of a single company or landlord who would hold either one of those things for more than a week let alone a year!
There are many steps to getting a Visa (which I will talk about in our next post) and in Germany there is no skipping ahead and getting one before we go. So......we wait. We wait until we are physically in the country to start the process of immigration.
In the meantime, we learn! Duolingo has been great in that aspect. The app helps you learn a number of languages and, more importantly, is free! I have zipped through a number of lessons because I took a year of Germanic college so I am pretty familiar with the basics. What I like most about Duolingo is that it helps with speaking, writing/translating both in German and English, matching up words, and listening. I try to do a lesson a day, if I miss a day or two I just double up the next time I do a lesson. The lessons in the app, once you finish, turns gold. After a week or so it will go back to looking like it did when you started so you can keep practicing and get better. You can also invite friends to join and compete for 1st place standings depending on the lessons you complete.
What is really discouraging is listening to someone who is fluen, that speaks quickly. RhinoSpike is the inducer of this fear of not knowing what I'm hearing mainly because they are not talking slow. This site is basically a bunch of audio files in a number of different languages on the most random things (I listened to one about Maria Theresa the other day). What is helpful is the transcript
underneath to follow along with so I guess that's not too bad. When I was listening I told Stephen we
are never going to learn and be on this level in a year! I keep thinking that we are going to be so overwhelmed then I took (and continue to take) a deep breath and remember Germans are really wonderful and for the most part (in most urban areas) speak English. We are going to be ok!
We are still so excited for this adventure! Both Stephen and I are pretty thick skinned so we are ready for any and all challenges thrown our way. Can we just leave already?!
This is just a picture that my friend took recently in Southeast Bavaria....it's incredible and I can't wait to see this with my own eyes! Thanks, Ryan for letting me share!
Comments
Post a Comment