Ok, before I get a slurry of snarky corrections from disapproving German readers, I would like to make the disclaimer that the above title IS A JOKE. Nur ein Witz!!
There seems to be an unspoken yet overriding theme at Humboldt’s Sommeruni this year: Superiority.
On the one hand, I feel it is good to be diligent and studious when learning German, but on the other hand, being inherently inflexible and a little too hard core in one’s manner when offering critique and/or corrections only serves to raise the anxiety for students who may be more inclined to take the polite road. And I am not talking about other students who happen to be German. I am speaking of students, all of us in the Sommeruni program, who have come form other lands to LEARN. Not beat down and judge, not to be laughed at or glared at. It is seriously like a war zone in the Sprachenzentrum during the hours of 9am-1pm. And that, ist kein Witz.
