Day 448 of German

Today was scheduled for a German pronunciation session with my friend, M, but we didn’t quite stick to the plan. I did manage to practice the umlauts: ä, ö, and ü. I find the “ö” sound particularly difficult, especially in words like können, schön, and bösen. I also struggle to distinguish between “schwül” and “schwul,” finding that I can barely hear the difference unless they are pronounced side-by-side. It reinforces the idea that, like all communication, proper listening is essential for accurate production.

For the rest of the time, I simply listened to M talk about her life in Germany, discussing her interest in healing and energy work. I learned a bit about Germanische Heilkunde and discovered there is a local community for this practice, which is separate from conventional medicine. It was a truly enjoyable day.

I do feel a little bad that I still lack the courage to speak German. My German vocabulary is now likely greater than the Japanese words I possessed when I first arrived in Japan as a graduate student. However, I’m not overly concerned with the speaking aspect. My goal, after all, is to read proficiently in German and to achieve sufficient comprehension of Hochdeutsch (Standard German). I much prefer listening to M and connecting with her as a friend than forcing her to wait while I struggle to articulate half-formed sentences.

It was a good day spent with my friend.