I’ve long been fascinated by the German language—both for its precision and ridiculously long words—but I’ve never sat down to analyse how I came to enjoy it. Based on recent research into the qualitative approach of autoethnography, I decided to offer my own oral account of learning German and how it has become a part of my identity.

If you listen hard, you may hear some persistent bird noises in the background—my apologies! Although I can gently encourage our pets to be quiet, I am powerless against the enthusiastic, wild ones that frequent the trees outside our window.

Links and Show Notes

• Ellis, C., and Bochner, A.P., 2000, ‘Autoethnography, personal narrative, reflexivity: researcher as subject’, in N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (eds), Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2nd edn, Thousand Oaks, CA, USA: Sage, pp. 733–769.
• Wiesbaden-Frauenstein in Hesse (Hessen), Germany (Deutschland)
• Our German ancestors Ludwig Heinrich Feld and Elisabeth Rheinberger, who were married eight days before sailing to Australia on the Reiherstieg, which left Hamburg on 3 April 1852 and arrived on 5 August 1852. The Reiherstieg was the 26th emigration ship from Hamburg in 1852. (I misstated the arrival date in the podcast—whoops!)
• Figtree High School
• Scholarships for Australian-German Student Exchange (SAGSE)
• Freiburg im Breisgau in Baden-Württemberg, Germany
• Gundelfingen in Baden-Württemberg, Germany
• Albert-Schweizer Gymnasium in Gundelfingen
• Hamelin (Hameln) in Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen), Germany
• Pied Piper of Hamelin
• Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg, Germany
• Munich (München) in Bavaria (Bayern), Germany
• Berlin, the capital of Germany
• University of Wollongong, Australia
• University of New England, Australia
• Goethe-Institut
• German-Australian Chamber of Industry and Commerce (AHK Australien)
• Duolingo
• Deutsche Welle
• Dieter Rams – Design Museum
• Jonathan Ive – Design Museum
• I could go on about this topic forever but decided to stop myself. In addition to my own experiences with the German language, my sister Jodie followed my footsteps into a cultural exchange with SAGSE. Coincidentally, she ended up spending her time in the very same city of Freiburg—only seven minutes by car from where I stayed. Truly, this is a weird Feld thing.