My new friends

2 Turks (1 male, 1 female)
1 Moroccan (female)
1 Algerian (female)
1 Frenchman
1 Bulgarian (male)
1 Pole (male)
1 Brazilian (female)
1 Paraguayan (male)
1 Sudanese (female)
2 Serbs (both female, 1 Rom)
1 Iraqi (male)
1 Lebanese (male)
1 Malaysian (male)
1 Macedonian Albanian-speaker (female)

1 American (me)

This is how my German course breaks down.

I started a daily German class at the Volkshochschule on Monday. These schools are half Parks & Rec and half INS: they offer classes in arts, dance, theater, cooking, exercise, etc for the general public, as well as the language courses required of immigrants and supported by state funds. Most of my classmates, then, are immigrants who must learn German; since I’m not, I have to pay 20 Euro more, but it’s still quite a deal.

We are not allowed to speak anything other than German for the 3 hours and 15 minutes a day we are in class, but sometimes we do. I can speak Spanish with the Paraguayan and the Brazilian; French with the Moroccan and the Algerian; or English with the Bulgarian and the Lebanese; I can speak all three with the Frenchman. Other than that, we only have German in common, which is great for practice but limits what we can discuss. Some of our usual topics are: who was late to class and why; our homework and who did it the fastest; and whose language has the most difficult grammar (probably Arabic).

In spite of the language barrier, we have a great time together and spend much of our time laughing hysterically about any old thing and annoying our teachers. To me it is kind of an idealized little EU world in room 308 (303 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays).

We are already known to each other by various personality traits:
Hanifi is always laughing and always in possession of chocolate bars
Ikram is always talking in languages not allowed in class
Krzystof is always late
I am always hungry

But we are all equal... at least when it comes to our German grammar. Schlecht!