16th November 2005 - Day 44
I can't pronounce "r" in German.
Unlike the English "r" where the tongue rolls backwards, there are 3 methods to pronounce "r" in German (and they are all correct). But I can't seem to get any of the methods correctly.
And the beautiful umlauts seem to evade me when I'm reading out loud. It's some sort of terrible diesease that renders me incapable of pronouncing words with umlauts correctly. Yeah, right.
I recieved a funny letter from the Bürgerbüro, asking me to register with them my previous address in Germany. I must be suffering from some memory loss. I can't seem to remember where else I've lived before in Karlsruhe. The stay with my host family last year shouldn't count. I wasn't even registered with the Stadt!
Doesn't matter if this is just a simple registration process. Just don't make me pay anymore! First it was S$80 for the so genannt Visum at the German Embassy in Singapore. Then when I came here, it was another 60€ for the residence permit in Karlsruhe.
I spent another 8.60€ on lecture notes today. It's the German version of a course that I've been taking in English. I think I'm going to try pestering the professor again for some concession. My 4th week into the new semester and the modules I'm taking are still not confirmed. Wunderbar!
So much for academic independence and freedom. It gets quite tiring when you're on the wrong side, trying to sort things out and getting back on track. Having said that, it must be possible to "exploit" the system. Just that I don't know enough. Yet.
Simon just came and asked me to go for a drink in the basement bar. I would have joined him if I had not showered and changed. He said we can go on Friday, but hey, I should be in Köln by then!
So, since I'm not going anywhere, I'm going to look through some of the German stuffs and try to pronounce "r".
posted by thelonetraveller @ 11:22 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Years of not-so-sucessful English education has sucessfully inculcated me to pronounce "r" the English way. I've to verlernt a bit first before I can get it correct.
hey..ur blog's becoming more and more entertaining...lol.. it's about one of the few things that's helping me in believing that SEP's materialisable. Enjoy siah. If u ever pass by tuebingen, (it's a nice town), update ya? =)
It only gets entertaining on certain days when I simply refuse to do any translation for my lecture notes. Tübingen is a nice town, so wird gesagt. But like all small towns, city kids get bored quite quickly. Unless you take up wandern here. And join all the parties like there's no tomorrow. You might like it there though, like how much I love this sleepy town called Karlsruhe.
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