A Layover in Munich

After three hours of sleep, I arrived in Munich determined not to miss a visit to the city during our nine hour layover. My friends and I made it out of the airport and into the city, which I soon learned is gorgeous mix of old buildings and well-manicured streets. It struck me how obvious a culture's values are to the lay observer and I decided I like German culture very much. Maybe this is because I'm mostly German. (At least, I am genetically.)

On my way home from the city, I was riding the bus across from a German lady who did "not speak English good." With a semester of German under my belt, I really wanted to try to have a conversation with the lady. Despite my atrocious pronunciation and limited-present-tense vocabulary, the lady and I had a nice conversation and I enjoyed conversing in a foreign language immensely. I decided I would like to continue learning German and plan to do so during the rest of my college career.

Despite the lady's admission that her English was not good, I was convinced it was equivalent to my German. And this is something I learned on the trip, whether in airplanes, signs, menus, or other forms of written and verbal communication, most of the rest of the world seems to know some, if not a lot, of English. My friend Ethan described our situation as being like the kids in a classroom who don't get the flu because all of the other kids took the time and effort to be immunized. I think it would not hurt us to place a stronger emphasis on learning additional languages during our education.