Getting one's head around all things Deutsch

As a native Canadian with bloodlines and ancestry stemming from Gujarat in India, I never imagined that Germany and all things German would become a deep-rooted part of my life. I met my husband over a year ago at my place of work, Fairmont Dubai. At first I thought he was from the north of England as I couldn't quite place the accent. His expat living began years before mine — almost ten years away from home (Mannheim) — and his English, while close to perfect, combined with his voice didn't quite fit the stereotypical German, whom I felt sounded more like Austrian Schwarzenegger than anything else.

As months went by and the relationship deepened, it became apparent that to truly understand my husband, I would have to adopt certain German practices and rituals. Language came to mind straight away. With his immediate family still working and living in Mannheim, and while his older sister could speak English, the rest of the family, including his mother, had difficulty doing so.

Taking classes

Upon the recommendation of a good friend, I enrolled in a beginner's German class offered by Eton Institute during the summer. Intimidated at first at learning a wholly new language in my 30s, the small and welcoming classroom, combined by the realistic teaching methods of instructor Carmen Al Jaber (after all with a 60-hour work week who has time to really master a new language?), put my worries at ease. In no time I was learning small phrases such as Ich heisse Alka (My name is Alka) and phrases for ordering food and drink in restaurants ich mochte ein glas Apfelsaft (I would like a glass of apple juice). These classes, which took place after work every Sunday and Tuesday, were a welcome relief from my busy work day, especially rewiring my brain to learn something new that was definitely not in my comfort zone. However, in a short time, it became so enjoyable that upon passing the first course, my classmates and I decided to take the next level at Eton Institute, a true testimonial to Carmen's teaching style.

Opportunities to speak German presented themselves everywhere once I took notice, especially in an expat city with more than 6,000 Germans. Two of my senior management personnel are German, and I was also able to converse (at a very basic level) to some Dutch colleagues. I quickly learned that though sharing a common ancestry, the Germanic peoples seamlessly appropriate their surrounding and add some colourful (and colloquial) dimensions to their spoken language.

Practical lessons

As part of my profession, I welcomed not so long ago some top-tier journalists from Hamburg (the publishing capital of the country), including Bunte and Die Welt (The World). As I attempted to welcome the group with a rather cheerful guten Tag and Wie geht's dir? (informal how are you — I could never really grasp formality at this stage of my German studies), it became painfully apparent that I was truly out of my league from a language perspective. Yet, the group helped me along, forcing me to speak, no matter how much I was in agony to form sentences and conjugate verbs correctly. At the end we did manage to exchange some thoughts on the upcoming Oktoberfest and various styles of dirndls.

All that aside, one of the most telling lessons that came out of the year-long assimilation into all things Deutsch was the strength of emotions that transcends cultural boundaries. I'll never forget the day I took my to-be mother-in-law and sisters-in-law for the last fitting of my wedding dress — I knew it would serve as a bonding experience with my new family. But I also realised that what could not be put into words, or rather German words, was instead spoken through emotions — specifically tears from my mother-in-law who saw first-hand the dress I would marry her son in.

It's been an ongoing experience ever since, one that has not been regrettable in the least.