Wo ist der besprechungsraum?

This week I have had my first official German lesson. I say official as my colleagues have been teaching me German phrases over the past 2 months so of which are useful but most of which are absolutely useless.

There were a number of comments in the office around the opinion that I didn’t need German lessons I would be better off with a German girlfriend but I pointed out numerous times that that doesn’t fit in well with my plan to keep my English girlfriend and therefore attending language school was the only option.

It was an interesting lesson. We started from scratch as I was pretty confident that I was virtually the lowest level of beginner that you could find despite my ability to say “Where is the meeting room” I don’t, or rather didn’t, know how to greet people correctly and ask how they were.

Anyway, what did I learn? Well I set about it with great efficiency. The prospect of 2 hours of teaching coming at the end of an 11 hour day was never filling me with joy so I decided to just write down and repeat everything that I was told and then I could revise the information at a later date say at a time when I’m twiddling my thumbs in an airport waiting for a delayed plane. The most memorable part of the lesson was our discussion around how to ask someone their name. To do this justice I need one of those double S things that looks like a B. However this is and English keyboard and doesn’t have one so we will make do with ss. "Wie Heisst du?" And "Wie heissen Sie?" Now I was advised to use "Wie heissen Sie?" as it is more formal. I was told that "Wie heist du?" Should only be used when talking to your friends. I asked why I would need to ask my friend’s names as if they were my friends I would already know their names.

The teacher looked confused and concerned. I realised that this discussion was perhaps not the best use of 20 euros an hour and suggested we move on.

Best thing I've learnt so far is the word warum.