July 2020
I am in Great Britain for 13 years and think and dream in English. And it feels even stranger to speak in German. Who knows though: Maybe Brexit means we have to go back to Germany. Then I have to get used to speaking German again. Still am not good with comma rules. Neither in German nor in English π .
June 2017
I still feel the same about German and I have lost so much more now that I am in the country for ten years.
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December 2010
I live in the UK since three and a half years and for some strange reason feel a bit odd when I talk German (my mother tongue) or hear it. There is this bizarre thought in my head that I was meant to live in the UK, but some force of nature put me in the wrong place. Well, am in the right one now and I love to write and talk in English.
But lately, I realised how much I lose with not using German. It is a different way of saying things. English is accurate and down to the point. You can say things in fewer words than you can in German. In German, you can play in a vast variety of words. Both languages have those words that mean more than one thing, and you can make some hilarious remarks with them. I am not sure how much the language you grew up in has an effect on the person you are. But knowing more than one language definitely, opens your horizon.
Writing in German feels like coming home. Language, reading, writing was the place I always felt safe and happy in. It was never the actual geographic place. The Internet gives me the possibility to stay in contact with German speaking friends and family and to write and read in German. That is probably the reason why I feel so much at home around here. But I wasn’t aware of that for a long time.
PS but I definitely don’t miss all the silly comma rules in German!!!!!!

Hey Bee,
man sollte reden, wie einem danach ist.
Ich meine, Sprache ist ein StΓΌck Heimat.
β¦ und offensichtlich best Du im englischen ganz gut zu Hause.
Sicher hat die neue Zeit viel Positives β auch schafft sie es, die Verbindungen zu seinen Wurzeln enger zu knΓΌpfen.
Es ist gut, so wie es ist.
Alles Liebe,
Michael
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Ah…the comma. As an English professor, I can tell you many native English speakers struggle with commas too.
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That’s re-assuring π. I think it is just curious that I can’t do commas right in either language πββοΈπ
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