The motivation for a language exchange? Learn the language, of course. In my case Russian. An exciting language: Influences of Vikings, Mongols, Greeks and many more developed into their own complex language, which is characterized in particular by a far too large number of words. Another peculiarity is the Cyrillic script, which consists of a handwriting and a block script, both of which have great similarities to the Latin script. But only visually: the Cyrillic letter for the sound of the Latin d in the handwriting looks like that of the g, the r like a p, the t like an m. And that's only a selection of the minor difficulties.

The question of how much I understand and whether I am making great progress is often asked. I don't feel competent to give a reasonable answer. In the closed environment of the Russian lessons, the topic of conversation is tailored to my level of knowledge. I know the words and forms used, or: I should know. The speed is also matched to my pace and is not comparable to that of a real conversation. And everything new is explained. Overall, things are going really well there, there is something new in portions and my understanding of the language of instruction is steadily increasing.

But on the street. Or in the restaurant, in the supermarket: as soon as I am spoken to, I stand there, puzzled, for two seconds, like a deer in front of the car. Then the awkward request to repeat what was said. It is usually the speed that prevents me from grasping the whole sentence. In most cases, I was then able to filter out a keyword or two that would save me a little time by repeating. So far, these confrontations in the restaurant and supermarket have two notable outcomes: either I get what I want at the end by repeating a keyword and a random "yes", "no" or "sorry". Or I'll get something else. However, both cases have one thing in common: I only remember what exactly the content of the conversation was half an hour later. And there is definitely no great progress to speak of.

Small side note: in this situation, the challenge "Fast Food Order Without Consultation" gets a whole new value. Another small side note: certain situations or factual references could be a little exaggerated or changed than they actually occurred. After all, language is also there for playing.