das Kinderdeutsch - children's german

after months of being frustrated with myself for not knowing enough of the language to say what i want, or, knowing the words but not the grammar, or actually putting together a decent sentence only to have english spoken back to me, i have decided to change my strategy. now, when presented with the option to have a conversation in german, i tell my co-conversant "ich spreche babydeutsch - sehr langsam, sehr einfach" and they speak to me like i'm a mildly disabled child, very slowly and very simply.

i'd probably be offended by this patronizing if i hadn't just asked for it, and i know my german teacher would rapidly rip me a new one if she knew. dan thinks it's a little embarrassing but i'm not proud. it's working! using this new method i had a conversation today about fancy soap at the fancy soap store, and in meissen i actually learned about how they paint and fire the gold trimming on the porcelain.

my new motto: baby steps with baby sprechs.