gönnen -- to hope something for someone else
Hallo alle! Hello everyone!
Since coming back from Oslo, I have simply been enjoying Berlin! And still learning a lot every day. For example, last week, my roommate's brother and his 2 friends were visiting and one of them had a lot of fun teaching me German and practicing his English. One word he taught me was gönnen. He explained it to me that you want someone else to have something because they deserve it. So I thought it was a great word, and was super excited when I read it in my book the next day and fully understood what it meant! Although for my blog, I looked up the English translation and all that came up was to grant, which isn't exactly a perfect translation. I also realized some English idioms are really hard to explain! For instance, "I dare you," or "I'm just giving you a hard time!" Learning a new language has really given me a new perspective of my own language, and it has also helped me to be more deliberate in the words I choose in English to express what I mean.
I also hung out with my host sister last week, and she let me shadow her for an afternoon at school. She goes to John F. Kennedy, a German-American school right up the street from their house. It was cool to see how the German Gymnasium or High School worked, and how they integrated this with common American traditions (like Prom).
Last weekend, we visited a friend of Maria's for dinner. Maria looked for an internship this semester using Notre Dame contacts. In the process, she met Fil, a Notre Dame alumnus. He invited us over for dinner with a few of his former co-workers. It was so much fun!! Fil's parents are from Mexico, and so he made us enchiladas with a mole-ish sauce and pico de gallo. They were SOOO good!! I haven't had mexican food in such a long time! It was also really fun to be able to chat with someone from Notre Dame.
Oh yeah, Fil also made us Mimosas. As though I didn't like him already.
On Monday, Hilary really wanted to go see Cage the Elephant in concert and she didn't have anyone to go with her, so even though I've never heard of the band, I went along for the ride. It was super fun and lots of great bonding time for Hilary and me.
This week was just full of music, because Tuesday we went to yet another concert. 4 of the other kids in our exchange program started a band in Berlin and they were performing so we went to go see them. It was very fun and they were good!! Very funny though -- the lyrics are all about depressing things such as suicide, death, and cancer, but the music is very upbeat and has a sort of Johnny Cash vibe. There were definitely a handful of German children having a blast dancing to a song called "Cancer."
Thursday I started my yoga class that runs for the next month and it was really great! It's an hour and a half, in German, and reminded me how much I miss doing yoga. It's also on the WAY other side of town, which is annoying when we have to leave at 7:45 to make our 9am yoga class (Hilary's in my class. or rather, I'm in hers because she took this class the first half of the semester, too), but it's also kind of cool to experience another part of Berlin.
I've also been working a lot on my final papers that are due at the end of the semester. That and trying to put together a study guide for my class with a final test. Maureen and I went to this cute cafe that my host sister showed me and realized it is a great work spot when we need to get out of our rooms.
See? I'm studying!
Another thing I will add, the German university system makes me really miss Notre Dame. (In my opinion, it's no where near as effective or as stimulating. But maybe I just miss business classes).
(I even decided to go all out with the ND colors one night.)
Liebe,
Emma
Since coming back from Oslo, I have simply been enjoying Berlin! And still learning a lot every day. For example, last week, my roommate's brother and his 2 friends were visiting and one of them had a lot of fun teaching me German and practicing his English. One word he taught me was gönnen. He explained it to me that you want someone else to have something because they deserve it. So I thought it was a great word, and was super excited when I read it in my book the next day and fully understood what it meant! Although for my blog, I looked up the English translation and all that came up was to grant, which isn't exactly a perfect translation. I also realized some English idioms are really hard to explain! For instance, "I dare you," or "I'm just giving you a hard time!" Learning a new language has really given me a new perspective of my own language, and it has also helped me to be more deliberate in the words I choose in English to express what I mean.
I also hung out with my host sister last week, and she let me shadow her for an afternoon at school. She goes to John F. Kennedy, a German-American school right up the street from their house. It was cool to see how the German Gymnasium or High School worked, and how they integrated this with common American traditions (like Prom).
Last weekend, we visited a friend of Maria's for dinner. Maria looked for an internship this semester using Notre Dame contacts. In the process, she met Fil, a Notre Dame alumnus. He invited us over for dinner with a few of his former co-workers. It was so much fun!! Fil's parents are from Mexico, and so he made us enchiladas with a mole-ish sauce and pico de gallo. They were SOOO good!! I haven't had mexican food in such a long time! It was also really fun to be able to chat with someone from Notre Dame.
Oh yeah, Fil also made us Mimosas. As though I didn't like him already.This week was just full of music, because Tuesday we went to yet another concert. 4 of the other kids in our exchange program started a band in Berlin and they were performing so we went to go see them. It was very fun and they were good!! Very funny though -- the lyrics are all about depressing things such as suicide, death, and cancer, but the music is very upbeat and has a sort of Johnny Cash vibe. There were definitely a handful of German children having a blast dancing to a song called "Cancer."
Thursday I started my yoga class that runs for the next month and it was really great! It's an hour and a half, in German, and reminded me how much I miss doing yoga. It's also on the WAY other side of town, which is annoying when we have to leave at 7:45 to make our 9am yoga class (Hilary's in my class. or rather, I'm in hers because she took this class the first half of the semester, too), but it's also kind of cool to experience another part of Berlin.
See? I'm studying!Another thing I will add, the German university system makes me really miss Notre Dame. (In my opinion, it's no where near as effective or as stimulating. But maybe I just miss business classes).
(I even decided to go all out with the ND colors one night.)Liebe,
Emma
Comments
Post a Comment