Culture Class: Learning a Foreign Language

I have been living in Austria for almost 8 months now and although that sounds like sufficient time to get to grips with German, which is the language spoken here, let me tell you, the words go in one ear and out the other. It's definitely a challenge learning a foreign language, although its also not impossible. Guess it just takes effort and practice.

This is about all the English to German I have learnt whilst living abroad:
* monkey - affe
* castle - burg
* hello - hallo
* good night - gute nacht

And the list of random things/sayings goes on.. But really most of them are useless in everyday speech. Especially when you walk into a shop and want to ask for a piece of meat cut in a certain way, but don't have the words to articulate your wish. It gets awkward. lol!

Mostly I have learnt through hearing people speak with each other or being taught the words by the kids I work with. Pronounciation is probably the hardest part. German has something funny going on with the 'r' sound, and for the life of me, I can't say it right.

The language I want to grapple with next is Czech. I started learning the basics about 8 months ago, but havent really continued since I've been in Austria and surrounded by German.

All I can say is keep trying, eventually you will get it. It'll never be perfect, but you'll feel proud of yourself and you'll have fun trying out what you learn in real life :)