Deutsche Reisetrends Presentation

I got an A+ on the German presentation. (The one about Deutsche Reistrends with an emphasis in Jugendreise.) He graded it amazingly fast - I had the summary in my email two hours after giving the presentation. He basically said that my grammar needed a tune up, (hmm, couldn't possibly have anything to do with the fact that I still haven't learned any genders in German, could it?) but that otherwise I was brilliant, had a good presentational manner, facilitated the discussion well, covered solid and thought-provoking material, and was comfortable with using my German.

I find the whole thing interesting, because most of my grade seemed to be about confidence rather than ability in the language. But then, language is all about communicating, so I guess in the end, confidence, fluency in the raw sense of the word, material, responsiveness to your audience, and a keep-the-ball rolling attitude are more important than adjective endings or articles.

I'm good at giving presentations, I know. I used to get nervous when giving them in foreign languages, at least, but now I think I'm even past that. After all, German is hardly my best language, and I didn't even practice before going in - just had a powerpoint with lots of slides I could resort to reading if I flipped out, and ended up not flipping out and free-speaking a lot, apparently adequately.

Even though the fate of my Germany study-abroad plans are in jeopardy, I am not longer quite as nervous about it. No, my German isn't great, but it's adequate - I understand, I communicate, we keep the ball rolling. I think I could maneuver the country and even pass classes - not that there wouldn't be embarrassing and stressful times, but I think I could do it.

I also had the thought the night before my presentation that I should dress up for it. Nothing crazy - but at least some eyeliner, some foundation, and a cute shirt. Since I'd been too busy for laundry recently I didn't really have any cute long sleeve shirts left, so believe it or not I improvised - mom would be proud - by taking a very plain black shirt and wearing a red and black patterned scarf over it. I'm not saying any of this had an impact for sure, and I'm sure it didn't consciously, but I think it made me look and maybe even feel more confident.