It's so frustrating learning a new language. I want to just magically wake up one morning and understand, which I know isn't actually going to happen, but it is really sad being one of the only monoglots I know. Everyone here speaks two or three languages, and usually pretty well. I go to parties and Germans speak English to me. I go to the photo supply store and the clerk has a thicker British accent than he does German. I know Danish kids who speak such good English that I though they were Americans. The guy I'm sharing the photo studio with is (I think) German, but so fluent in Spanish that he accidentally throws in Spanish phrases when he's speaking English.

And then I try to speak German to a store clerk and can't understand when she asks me how many of something I want. I probably even know the words she's saying, but I can't pick them out of the stream of sound. Toddlers speak better than I do.

Of course, intellectually I understand that it takes a toddler 3 or4 years of constant immersion to start putting together complete sentences , but it's still frustrating. My house mate Adam, who speaks four languages, has given me a bunch of tips. He says that, until you've listened to a language for a certain number of hours, you actually have a fear response that makes it harder to understand when someone is speaking directly to you. Your brain knows that there is information contained in the sounds you're hearing, but the sounds are unfamiliar and your brain panics .

It actually makes a lot of sense - I can understand my teachers at school (granted, they're speaking slowly and simply, but I can understand them), I can understand random snippets of conversation, but I almost always miss it when someone is talking to me directly. I remember the same thing happening when I was in Japan. So I guess it's time to bust out the German radio stations and start listening to it as background noise. Sure hope it helps.