At breakfast, I joked to Achim that today would be "der Moment der Wahrheit". The literal English translation is "the moment of truth", and Achim's English is perfect enough for him to know exactly what I meant. But he didn't even laugh. It seems the phrase is used in German too, and so I'd stumbled into idiomatic Deutsch in spite of myself.
So I went happily off to my first day of lectures in Germany, and found that the truth isn't actually that bad. Depending on the clarity of the lecturer's voice, my comprehension can be anywhere from almost everything he (always he, so far) says to almost nothing. And I haven't yet managed to get hold of textbooks. But the blackboard is my saviour. Like in New Zealand mathematics courses, the exposition proceeds in neat "Definition"-"Lemma"-"Corollary"-"Example" format, and everything gets written on the board; once it's there, I can squint and re-read it and mentally translate it at leisure. My other great help is that the German vocabulary used is very limited, and often the same as in English anyway.
So I may spend less time than expected struggling with the language, and be able to devote myself mostly to struggling with the mathematics. The greatest struggling will be with my paper on representations of compact Lie groups. I'm taking it here because nothing much similar's offered in Auckland. Consequently, however, my background in the area is somewhat skimpy.
Lectures are two hours long, with a break of ten or fifteen minutes in the middle. I had three lectures today, and was at uni from nine til six. Class sizes are huge, by New Zealand standards: thirty to sixty students in courses whose Auckland equivalents might have five. In anticipation of German winters, there's a coat rack at the back of every classroom.
There's an lecturer (originally European) in Auckland who's beloved for his habit of washing the blackboard with a bucket of water after every lecture he gives. Here, however, it's the norm. And every lecture room comes equipped with two little thingamabobs: one like a mop, for washing the board, and one like a razor, to scrape off the excess water afterwards. Drips form, and run down the side of the blade-thing as it's pulled across the board, collecting in a long skinny puddle on the floor underneath.
At the end of each lecture there's a round of desk-thumping, to signal applause.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Ah, I miss the coat racks...and the blackboard wiping procedure seems vaguely familiar too. Although I don't remember my father ever getting applause from his students. (Of course, I was too busy sleeping during the first lecture, and after that with reading Lord of the Rings, to pay much attention).
Congratulations on your idiomatic Deutsch! That's quite impressive. I hope your textbooks materialise, and that the Lie groups (whatever they are - sounds like the name of some psychological experiment to ignorant me) are easy and interesting all at once.
Very much enjoying your frequent posts!
Is there anything you don't like about Germany!? All these things you say are so nice.
Post a Comment