We might be moving to Germany!

[Aroura]

When I first moved to Germany I started making lists of words that I heard but didn't know but came up enough times that I thought that I should know. When I was watching TV for the first I quickly ended up with a page of A4  covered in words that I had looked up and I thought that it would take ages for me to learn it. But very soon I was at a stage when I look back on that list and realise that it was all very basic German.

This was particularly useful to German bureaucracy which unfortunately you will have to deal with as soon as you move to Germany.. Just accept from the outset that it will take a long time to read each letter and understand what it is saying. But on the plus side, they use a lot of the same words each time, often strung together to make long frightening words. Reading official German is a very important skill but you will quickly start to recognise a lot of the words that they use if you persevere with what seems very daunting at first.

Funny you mention the official documents, we just finished filling out the tenant document to send to the new landlord.  They really do string together a lot of words to make giant, scary words. We had to use google translate and also guess a lot even after translation.  I'm going to try and find a better translator app for my phone, for doing this sort of thing when out of the house.  Have you ever used a translation app to help you?

p.s. Great idea about writing down words you hear but don't know, to look up later.  I have an unused journal here, it will be perfect for that.  Thank you for all the helpful advice!