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I was at the 2006 FIFA World Cup Finals. The flight attendant's greeting aboard German Airlines felt to me like a have-a-good-day message or enjoy-the-flight customary greeting. Unable to decode the language she was speaking that sounded so cryptic to me, I just jumped into an assumption (logical I hoped) that what her sounds meant were words of goodwill, either have a good day or enjoy the flight. "You're now just few hours from the World Cup. It's our pleasure to bring you safely in Germany," she then translated after the cryptic words. None of my guesses was right. I then saw the biggest hurdle right before my face. I should have really brought the dictionary mom bought. I immediately spotted the arranged hotel ride as soon as I got out of the airport lobby. Checking out went smooth and easy. I had my luggage at hand immediately and some quick passport and visa checking were all done in a jiffy. Airport personnel made me feel at ease, we spoke a common language, my English. Their mumblings still sounded cryptic or "ambigramic" but the puzzling was way easier than that of the flight attendant's totally foreign language. Thanks to the holocaust movies my dad watches every now and then, I was somehow accustomed and prepared for the German's morphology of my lingua franca. Think and speak nasal to understand them and for them to get what you're saying. On the way to the hotel, I sensed that the driver or rather the chauffeur ( the closest I can translate "driver" to a language other than mine) was mightily trying to extend warmth and hospitality. Sensitive enough, he immediately recognized the I-can't-quite-understand-you crumpled look on my face and spoke in a more comprehensible sound. In fairness, his English was excellent (relative to most natives during the flight and in the airport). Der Chauffeur (my cahuffeur lacked Der, as he told me his professional title) gave me a little crash course on practical German words and lines I can use to survive until my flight back home. Hello is "hallo", good morning is "Guten Morgen," How much is this is "Wieviel kostet das," hotel is (luckily) "hotel," bank is "das Bankhaus," and airport is "der Flughafen." I practiced to get their pronunciations right until we reached das hotel. Stressed by the language barrier, I ended up succumbing to my das Beet (bed) in my cozy, homey das Hotelzimmer (hotel room) in Ibis Berlin Adlershof. Couple of days later, after much re-telling of my Berlin experience to everyone and much reflection on the experience I had, I decided to widen my languages-spoken zone. To my surprise, a handful of web sites are apparently offering online language courses (for free at that) on almost about every language being spoken by at least half of a country's population. I took a German language course (as a natural recourse to the trip I just had) through learnplus.com. About 20 other language courses are also available in learnplus.com, most of which are even free of charges. Through my online language course, I learned that my most beloved *lingua franca* apparently had some of its origin from the German language that I regard as so cryptic. Moreover, the syntax, grammar of English, and German languages are pretty much hinged on the similar rules and practices. The phonology is what seems to set both languages' worlds apart and probably the hardest to learn. I'm now starting to learn sentence construction and exerting much and much effort learning the sounds (and pidgins) of my target language. Learnplus.com offers very student-friendly beginner's modules and readings. The course starts at the very basic levels of language learning prior to language acquisition. Most practical usages of common phrases, words, and terms are the primary things I learned from the first module. The second one taught me the German alphabet and the basic sounds of the German language. Helpful exercises are also available for practical mastering especially of the pronunciation. After learning well enough how to speak at least conversational German, my next target language is French. I heard that it is harder to learn French than German, so my plan to enroll in a French online language course probably by next month will be just in time for my Tour de France next summer. I imagine it to be more exciting experiencing the beauty (and hopefully romance) of Paris if I can twist my tongue the French way. Traversing the mazes of the Louvre will surely be more enriching for the non-art aficionado in me if I can at least have an easier conversation with the tour guide by being able to at least converse decently more than a bonjour, si, and non. A friend recommended france-pub.com for French lessons, saying it's more practical than the French in learnplus.com. After French, I might also take up Spanish, Mandarin, and Nihonggo. And of course, I must learn at least one of South Africa's 11 official languages for the next World Cup. Make it ten rather, English is given.
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