My Accent

I have an American accent. I had never thought much about it before I came to Germany, but now everyone I meet points it out.
My accent is so strong that it literally defines me. I was in German class, and the teacher told us to pick out someone and describe them using a specific grammatical element.
The lady from Albania described me as "The light-haired, blue-eyed girl with the American accent".
Another time, a kid at school was looking for me in the classroom. I was sitting behind someone else, so he couldn't see me, but he stood up and asked, "Where's the girl with the accent?".

When I was in Austria, I didn't understand a word anyone said. Once, we were sitting in a ski lift with a few other people. They were talking among themselves in something that was kind of like high German. I understood a decent amount, but not as much as usual. I can usually understand everything. Then a guys telephone rang, and he answers and starts talking in a language that I didn't recognize at all. I couldn't understand a single thing he said. Nothing.
Turns out that's Austrian German.

I have a friend from Switzerland who was in Alaska on exchange last year. I recently messaged him to tell him that I was going to his city during our Eurotour. I messaged him in German because we both speak German, right? Oh boy was I wrong. I had to switch to English halfway through because we couldn't understand each other at all.

Then there are the local dialects of German. In the area that I live in, people speak Hessisch. I've been able to learn quite a bit of it, but sometimes when older people talk to me, I can't understand a word they are saying. IT sounds like extreme mumbling. Another time I was talking to a guy that lives farther south from me. He is from Bavaria. I told him that German was really hard and it kind of sucks to learn. He said "I know. I speak Bavarian. My German is really bad".

On the other hand, I have a friend from Northern Germany. He doesn't like talking to me in Germany because I don't speak 'real' German.

Just goes to show ya.

My English is too bad to form any more sentences.

More soon!