This week’s Wordless Wednesday photos were taken in Dresden in 2007.  Have you ever been there yourself?

Part of the Dresden skyline. Photo copyright Nicolette Stewart

This contraption makes music when it rains. Dresden Neustadt. Photo copyright Nicolette Stewart

In Regensburg on the Donau you’ll find this impressive building—Walhalla.  Photos taken on a 2006 visit.

Walhalla Regensburg. Photo copyright Nicolette Stewart

Walhalla Regensburg. Photo copyright Nicolette Stewart

Photo (cc) flickr user alasdairnicol

“The limits of my language means the limits of my world.”  Ludwig Wittgenstein was completely correct in this statement, if I ponder back and realize the feeling of illiteracy I experienced during after my initial stay in Germany. In order to explore foreign soil, it is important to know the local language.

My German knowledge was confined to the formal greetings and very basic words.  In my initial days, I was quite comfortable in university campus but when I had to step alone out of campus I was like a lost baby in the fair; I didn’t know how to ask, what to ask, or how to follow any instructions, verbal or written. I couldn’t read the boards, the names of shops, the caution notices i.e., literally anything. Now, that sounds adventurous!

Today’s Wordless Wednesday photos come to us, once again, from YG editor Nicolette Stewart.  They were taken in 2006 on her first trip to Berlin and feature the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas).

Photo copyright Nicolette Stewart

Photo copyright Nicolette Stewart

Photo copyright Nicolette Stewart

Feeling tongue-tied when trying to speak German? It might just be that you're in "the silent period" of language learning. Photo (cc) flickr user Enokson

A lot of people find themselves thrown into their expat life suddenly.  A job offer or a transfer or a new military post comes out of the blue and BAM!  Suddenly you and your family find yourselves packing up and moving to Germany.  You’re wondering how you’ll ever manage to get the house packed up, let alone to learn the language.  You’re overwhelmed (but excited) about the sudden change (and all the cheap and delicious beer and wine you’ve heard abounds in the land of the Autobahn).

Welcome to a new blog series on YG: Wordless Wednesday!  Here we’ll feature your photos of life in Germany, whether you live in here or just passed through once on vacation.  Photos can be of anything from tourist attractions to typical daily life.  E-mail your submissions to Nicolette DOT Stewart AT fs-medien DOT de with one to three sentences about where you took them and when.  And remember, we can only accept photos you have taken yourself.

This week’s Wordless Wednesday photos come from YG editor Nicolette Stewart and were taken during her first trip to Berlin in 2006.  Enjoy!

Photo copyright Nicolette Stewart

Photo copyright Nicolette Stewart

Photo copyright Nicolette Stewart

Learning a foreign language can be frustrating, can start to feel like a lot of "blah blah blah," but it is always rewarding. Photo (cc) flickr user theunquietlibrarian

I’ve talked before about how fluency in a language can still mean frustration when you find yourself needing to talk about a new subject.  When I began renovating my home, I suddenly found myself tongue-tied.  I needed help learning the skills I would need to finish the project, but I didn’t have the vocabulary to talk about it.  Words like beam, insulation, and jigsaw were not in my vocabulary; there had never been a unit on building in any of my German textbooks, and it had never occurred to me to learn them.  At least I knew the word for “hammer.”  (It’s Hammer!  Got that one in the bag.)