Twice! Twice in less than a week I had to address groups of about 100 Germans... in German! With groups that size I have just about zero fear of speaking, assuming the language of the day is English and I can just be myself. German on the other hand is just awkward. No matter how good it sounds in my head the words end up turned around somehow or another.
Case 1: Last Sunday the International Student Group (IST) was visiting the church that lends us a room each week. Every language represented said something in that language (I was the only native english speaker, and coincidentally the only language the congregation understood before the final translation into German). Then the group leader, spur of the moment, asked us, over the microphone, if any of us could briefly share what IST meant to us personally. Awkward pause before I shuffled over to the microphone fumbled through some positive sounding words. Everyone understood, but... rather challenging.
Case 2: My small group was responsible for handling the details for Large Group this week for the SMD. My task (in addition to set up and tear down) was to talk briefly about why we worship. Fortunately my troubles with German drove my point home stronger. For me, being able to worship with music allows me to express myself more fully and completely than with words alone, just as speaking in English allows me to express myself more fully and completely than when I speak German. That is the gist of what I said, only it took me a good many more words to say it in German.
That's all. Hopefully I'm off the hook for addressing large crowds for a while.
Thanks for your attention. Good night.
2 comments:
That's hard, but cool! Didn't you say you want to get better at speaking German? There's a start ;)
I forgot, but what is SMD again? Sounds like an IV.
Indeed, SMD is also part of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. And yes, good practice =)
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