Hallo alle! These past few weeks seem to be flying by faster and faster…I realized today how many more gifts I need to buy for my friends and family back home. I don’t feel ready to go back! I can’t really say I did anything particularly exciting this week, but I’ve still been enjoying my time here. I love doing simple things, like buying my groceries for the week or walking five minutes to a nearby park for some journaling and reading. I feel like Berlin fits me really well, and I can definitely see myself living here for a short amount of time. It’s so rich in queer and feminist culture/history.
Speaking of queer and feminist culture/history, my Pride flag Instagram posts gained the attention of a German politician, Weibke Neumann! She’s a member of the SPD and specializes in queer politics. Her “Kiez,” or district in Berlin, is Schöneberg, which is actually pretty close to my office. When my coworker told me of the news, I felt pretty proud of myself. I was the one who had the idea to make these Instagram posts as a little project throughout Pride month, and I brought them to fruition! It’s small wins like this that really make this internship feel special.
Regarding this week’s prompt, I can’t say any major communication differences immediately come to mind. However, I think that Germans are pretty detail-specific in their communication. Whenever one of my coworkers is telling me about an upcoming Pride event, or posts details about said event on Instagram, all of the details are there. I’m never really left with any questions about what I should bring or wear, or how I should prepare. Also, despite my previous blog posts detailing how Germans have a relative unfriendliness, I do think they are very genuine in asking how you are. Sometimes, my boss will ask me how I am upon arriving in the office and I immediately say, “Good! How are you?”. I’ve realized that this subconscious answer doesn’t really fit the flow of the rest of the conversation as my coworkers go into depth about their weekends or upcoming plans. I’ve learned to take a second, think, and then respond.
I’ve certainly encountered some miscommunication. At the start of my internship, my coworkers and boss spoke to me strictly in German. I took this challenge head on, as I genuinely do want to improve my German comprehension skills. However, this is certainly easier said than done. In German, I naturally have more questions about context or details than I do in English. My coworkers and boss gradually started speaking to me more in English, which does help me greatly. This isn’t to say we don’t speak German to each other at all. But in giving me instructions about projects or upcoming events, they will speak to me in English.
When attending meetings with other queer organizations in Berlin, I do sometimes struggle in understanding what is being said. I’m not saying that I want people to “dumb down” what they’re saying when speaking in front of me, but Germans just speak so fast sometimes. I try my best, but it’s very easy to get lost when talking about political affairs or problems within the queer community. Sometimes, people will let me know it’s okay to “ask a question” if I don’t understand anything. I know that I could do that, but it seems a bit awkward in reality. I have no problem asking my coworkers what certain terms mean, but I guess I just don’t feel super comfortable interrupting a meeting to ask what a specific word means. But, after these meetings, my coworker Charlotte usually asks me what I thought or if I didn’t understand something. This debrief definitely helps.
I’d say the hardest part about communicating in German is the frustration I feel with myself. I’m genuinely very excited to be working at my internship, but I really do struggle in putting my complex thoughts into words auf Deutsch. The thing is, I know I’m smart! I’m very well-versed in queer history and complex intersectional issues, but I only know so many sentence structures. I only know so many adjectives. Sometimes, I find myself really angry that I can’t demonstrate the knowledge that I have during meetings or workshops. The last thing I want is for L-Support volunteers or other leaders of organizations to question why I’m here. When I’m given unique academic opportunities, like this internship, I always feel this need to prove to others that I am supposed to be here. It’s just harder in another language, culture, and work environment.
Well, that is all from me. I hope you’ve all been managing miscommunication with more ease than I have. Tschüßi und bis nächste Woche!