We were waiting for the bus stop when I happened to detect Japanese from the Asian couple beside me. "Nihongou?" I'd asked eagerly. I could've sworn it was Japanese, but I wanted to make sure. In fact, it was a Japanese couple!! I believe they'd asked me if I could understand or speak Japanese, and I tried to express that I could speak a little, with the few words that I could remember off the top of my head and my hand gestures.

Of course, having listened to many Japanese subs and having only taught myself to this point, I could understand far more than I was able to express. I spoke in very small fragments, but I understood most of what they said, and fortunately, they seemed to understand me well enough even though I could hardly communicate well!!

For example, I was trying to express that I learned Japanese on my own but am learning German in school. I actually HAVE learned how to say "I'm studying German in school," I believe, but off the top of my head, I can't remember it, especially with how excited I'd been to be speaking with a Japanese couple. I'd have to have looked at the screenshots I'd taken from Kawaii Nihongou.

Instead, I settled for fragments: "watashi wa" "Nihongou" "gakkou nai" "benkyoushimasu" "demo" "watashi wa" "Doitsugou" "gakkou" "benkyoushimasu" or so.

He'd also asked me where I was from and why I was in Berlin, and some of it took me a few times to hear to fully understand. (But I do the same thing with English sometimes, too.)

I was very lucky that he understand what I was trying to express, because as soon as he offered something for clarification, like 'a school group' in Japanese, I could be like 'ah! Yea! That's it!' and I could nod and say 'hai' or something along those lines.

I was also lucky that he spoke German in addition to Japanese and even English!! So I was able to clarify what I'd been trying to say in Japanese by saying it clearly in German, and then when I failed to have enough German, I could refer to English. I hardly spoke any English, really, and I was so proud!! Even though I was hardly able to convey what I was trying to say, I understand most of what they'd said, and we were able to understand each other well enough!!

Unfortunately, because we were communicating, we all missed our bus, so the couple headed off, and we went into the Reichstag. I was on Cloud Nine for a few hours lol xP