German class

It's week 2 of german sprechen! My class has grown from 4 to 10, with every growth reaping more and more interesting people. There are three americans, all gay, who have found german partners in the city via the internet. A fashion designer, a stylist, and an artist. There is an older woman from Poland who has been here for 3 years but can't speak a word of german until now. A Brazilian woman who has been here since December, a Thai woman who has been here since February, a dude from Iceland (!), and another from mother Russia (this is how he refers to Russia each time someone asks where he's from).

We have two teachers, each excellent but with very different styles. Christina (Mon-Wed) will rarely use english to explain because there are two people who cannot understand it, which is excellent for us to keep it immersion, and goes really fast through the lessons, which I think is way more stimulating than being really slow. Michael, who we have on Thursdays and Fridays, explains a lot in english and goes slower, BUT breaks down the words and phrases so we can understand and pronounce each word correctly.

We have just started the lessons on how to fill out forms, and asking about citizenships, birthdates, family, etc. This has been fun since german numbers are extremely long to say (although, in my opinion, much easier than french because there is no 4x20 +17 = 97 numbers, for example!). One thing that my teacher makes sure I learn is how to say things related to pregnancy, like I have no kids but I will have one soon; how many months along I am; etc. She teaches me this in front of the whole class, which would normally be boring for the rest of the class, except now everyone uses it. For example, Emmanuele, the gay american fashion designer, was asked by my teacher if he has any children. He replied, "No, i have no children, and I am not having any soon because I am not pregnant." Now everyone uses it when we say our introductions! Ah, yes, the beauty of having a small number of phrases you can say in a language.