Speaking in German, just like writing in English, unfailingly brings about to me an ineffable, compelling pleasure, an experience that begs recurrence and fosters improvement.

Last week, I went to an international meetup in Paris and had the chance to speak German with another learner for some unsatiating 45 minutes – more German than I had used in 12 consecutive meetings of the same kind in Berlin. That made me regain some interest in the language and realize the best way for me to go about learning German, that is, by speaking German. Good news, there are quite a lot of international meetups and French-German ones here in Paris. Bad news, school starts next week, and I’ll have a wholly different set of concerns to take care of. I probably should have attended more meetings during my holiday (or, well, – no pun intended – more specifically since my trip to Berlin, which is where I discovered these meetings)… But then I would have violated the Inexorable Holiday Productivity Curse™, which states that bitter realization and ultimately regrets should befall you at the dusk of your vacation. Maybe this is due to the unwieldy time block that holidays offer, and maybe such surges of awareness would happen more often were life more granularly and distinctly partitioned. But that’s another kettle of fish.

Recently, I also spent some time with a French friend I had made in Berlin, and our occasionnal blabber in German (I should mention he’s as crazy about German as I am) invariably proves greatly satisfying.

I don’t nearly feel the same way when I’m speaking English, perhaps because it’s become mundane for me, since I frequently think in English for example. I could probably breathe new life into my spoken English by working on my accent, a task I’ve been putting off for way too long, maybe because of the resignation and envy that arise when I see others unconsciously acquire a native-sounding accent, without effort.