Oh, she's gonna call me any second. Oh my god, I'm not ready. No!
Yall, this is my first time taking a lesson in months, probably since November.
I'm f***** freaking out, there's people mowing lawn in the background.
It's like a whole thing. I'm just scared.
I don't know, I just feel like with German you have to constantly speak it
and when you don't constantly speak it, you're gonna lose it.
That's the deal with all languages. But let's just do it and see how it turns out.
[Skype calling tone]
[deafening awkward silence while it connects]
Hello? -Hi, how are you? Your hair looks great!
-Thanks! You too. -[mine looks blegh]
Are you in Munich? -I'm in Munich, yeah. -Still. That's good.
-[unintelligible] What happened? Because you wanted to come to Germany somehow, or were you never here?
-So yeah, that was the plan, but it was during...
I don't remember.. was it Omicron?
It looked pretty serious, so I thought maybe it's not a good time to travel to Germany.
So I canceled it. Canceled?
-Canceled, yeah. -So, it's been so long that we've talked!!
-Yeah, I don't remember exactly when [we last talked] but it's been a long while. I was really curious keeping up with your Instagram posts.
-Yeah, you can keep up with me that way. -And I thought, she's really motivated to learn German!
I was soooo broke these last 3 months that I couldn't take any lessons, but
I can still study by myself.
[funky pop transition]
Do you have any trips planned? -Yes! Next week, on the 23rd, I'm going to Amsterdam.
Amsterdam. Why do all Germans only go to.. -Oh, you're frozen.
[reconnecting] helloooo.
I wanted to ask, why do all Germans only travel to Mallorca and Amsterdam?
It's like you guys don't know.. -I think there's a handful of other places [we travel], but Mallorca, yeah..
I went to Mallorca once when I was 18, it wasn't that spectacular. But
I don't know, Amsterdam is just so cool, so liberal, weed is legal there. -Ah, yeah.
I think everyone had their "COVID trip" that got cancelled. For me, it was China.
In February 2020 I wanted to go to China to visit my sister, and
of course that wasn't possible. But this summer I think I'm going to [secret location lmao].
-Oooh! -But there's no legal weed there.
I thought it might be legal in Germany, but..
-It should be officially legalized this year,
-Not because people would like for it to be, but because
they've said that the police have so much work.
I've also heard of police departments saying, "Please legalize it."
"We have so much work [with this] and we don't have any time for important things."
-That's a really funny but important reason that I think people don't realize in the U.S.
We don't think about all of the unnecessary work that police do to ... erm..
[English] enforce weed being illegal ?
I dunno, but..
-Yeah, to monitor that. [nachverfolgen], that's what I would say.
[sneaky orchestra transition]
-What is "gesoffen"? -Gesoffen! Aahh, a word you don't know. -I think I've heard it, but I don't remember.
-"Saufen" means to drink alcohol.
-Ah, I've heard "besoffene Leute" (drunk people) before. Is that the same as gesoffen?
-Die Besoffenen (drunkards), exactly, yeah. So, like, during Oktoberfest.
And then "kiffen" means.. ah, nice. I've taught you "drink alcohol" and "smoke weed" today.
So if I were to say to the police, "Hey, Elysse is in Germany at this address. She's smoking weed at home."
The police would knock on your door, search through your place, and you'd be charged for that.
-I didn't know you were a snitch.
-eine Petze (snitch). -Yeah, I didn't know you were a snitch.
So that's interesting, the priorities. You can be drunk in public but not high.
-Drunk people are so gross and loud and aggressive, and gross!
But that's totally OK! And weed is just.. completely looked down upon (verpönt).
Verpönt. Do you know this word. -Eeerrmm, no, but I know what you mean.
In the U.S. it depends on the state.
So in Michigan it's legal, in Oregon..
so, in a bunch of states in the North. It's not [FULLY] legal anywhere in the south. Nowhere.
So if it was legal in Germany, would it depend on the state/region?
-Oh, that's a good question! I know that they have different laws already.
so, like, in Berlin. I think you can legally consume it, but not possess it.
[more sneaky transition music]
-So, tax evasion is really the worst thing you could possibly do.
-That says a lot about German culture, more than..
-Yeah, you're right.
-That was.. Hebrew, I think. Right?
-Hm? -That you started learning, right?
-Hebrew. Yeah, I took a break from learning that after last summer.
I didn't expect it to be so, so..
yeah, difficult right at the beginning. Because the alphabet has no [written] vowels.
You pretty much have to guess them.
-Oh, it's the same in Arabic.
-Yeah, you don't write them. There is a dot system (nikkud),
that you write under the letters..
these little dots and lines.
-[I didn't understand what she said at this part but she was talking about Babbel]
-I don't use it.
-[there was a guy] who learned Spanish in a week with Babbel.
-They rejected me!
So I wanted to work with them, with the brand, but they said that I..
that my audience.. there wasn't enough Americans.
Because they want dollars, not pesos.
They said, if your audience isn't 40% American, we can't work with you.
And I told them, hey, I also have an audience in Germany and Europe in general, but they were like "ehh, that's okay."
-Ah, that's a shame. Have you ever asked to work with Duolingo?
-No. I don't really like to work with brands (Märken or Marken)?
-Die Marken.
-So I don't like working with brands I don't use.
-I'm just reading a couple of books right now. -But you're focused on Spanish, or?
-Now I'm focused on Dutch because [I'm going to] Amsterdam.
-Dutch, okay.
-[Don't understand this part hehe]
-and it was the same with French, and I thought "I have to separate them. I can't do everything simultaneously, I have to have some kind of order."
I've definitely been neglecting Spanish, but
-That's so chaotic! French, Swedish, Dutch..
I tried to learn Dutch for a time but it was way too close to German and also English.
When they're different enough from one another...
-Especially with things like "estudiante" and "étudiant".
So then I'll say something like "éstudiant", some type of mixed word.
It's funny when your teacher also knows both languages, so they know exactly what you're trying to say.
-That's the worst, when you say a French word in Spanish and sound so fancy.
You gotta go now, I'm sure you have other lessons.
-Yeah, I have more. But it was really cool to talk with you again!
-Yeah, I'm back.. hehe.
-It's good we got to see each other again. See you soon, bye! -Bye.
BUH!
Welcome to editing/behind the scenes with Elysse DaVega/Speaks.
This is Gracie Gianoukos!
Hi everybody--
Hello, I'm Gracie Gianoukos, I'm... I'm just here.
She's just here, nothing else.
Anyways, there was no good end to this video when I recorded it, so I thought
I would just do it here, live, behind the scenes. You get to see everything.
I think this lesson went okay. For not speaking for 5 months, it went pretty darn good.
Oh my god, something I'll do when I don't speak for a long time is trail off and not finish my sentences.
Because sometimes I get myself into a sentence that's so complicated, I don't know how to finish it.
But I have a great teacher, she makes it easy to come back into it. She's
very lax, very chill. And she can sense when I'm not understanding something, when I need something.
So having the right person matters. And even if you haven't spoken your language for a long time,
because if you're speaking to the right tutor, the right partner, the right person...
you're gonna be fine.
It can make it really hard to want to get back into the language if you haven't spoken it for a while, because
you feel like "Oh, I'm gonna suck" or it's just not gonna go good.
And then you get yourself into a cycle, but luckily I was able to break that.
I did a 45-minute lesson, you could do a 30-minute lesson. Or literally just
call a Tandem partner for 20min. It doesn't have to be a big thing. You could
talk to yourself in the shower. Point is, you shouldn't stop speaking a language for 5 months,
I wouldn't do it. Life happened, what can I say?
So I'm chillin' out. I'm not worried. I feel great.
And since I've had this lesson, I've had another lesson. And it went great. So
I thought the first one went pretty good, but in the second one I rectified myself even more.
Anyways, I'll stop talking. Thank you for watching this video so much, and I'll catch you on the flip.
Take care. Say bye, Gracie.
Bye, everybody--BWAHAHAHA