Fluency

Although I protested tonight, my husband encouraged me that my German language skills are better than I believe.

The thing is, there is one simple fact that prevents any foreigner from mastering German perfectly.

They have 16 words for the word "the". (And to be truthful, J exposed 3 more that hadn't occurred to me.)

With 19 words for the word "the" - you can imagine the "math" that goes on in a foreigner's head as we try to establish 1. What is the gender of the noun I'm talking about and 2. What is the case of that noun?

In real-life-talking speed, I cannot ask those two questions before my sentence is spoken. So more likely than not, I've screwed it up.

J was so kind, he quizzed me tonight and said, "Did you have to 'do the math' or did you just answer instinctively" I said, "Well, in many cases I've simply memorized the phrases, so...OK."

For example, the phrase, "on the right side of the street" involves knowing the gender and the case, so you have to conjugate most of those words individually.

J then said how hard English is for foreigners, and I argued with him, but he's right.

Someone researched that the English language has 14 ways of spelling the sound "oo". Yah, sucks to be you.

BUT,  to explain how difficult it is to just spit out a single fluent sentence in German....

Here is the chart: