I’ve been learning German too myself, and the thing that the traditional language courses don’t teach you is the way natives speak. Listening to actual German speakers was pretty much alien to me even after two years until I bumped into a couple Easy German videos where they touch the very same subject as this xkcd and that actually got me listening to certain parts of speech more carefully and that way also understand it better.
Now I actually find myself doing the same shortcuts sometimes when I’m progressing with the skill. It’s the same with English since I have to use it daily at work even though I’m not a native speaker. Funny how the languages work in real life vs. in theory.
Haha, are you me? I moved away from Tampere a bit over 10 years ago before all the development projects started in the city centre. I lived in a couple different cities with the latest being Helsinki for many years, and oh my how much has Tampere changed for the better during that time. A bit over a year ago we made a decision to move back to Tampere with my girlfriend (who also is from here) and I absolutely love it. Hämeenkatu has an awesome atmosphere now that it’s not full of speeding cars and buses. Now, I do still drive all around the city but I don’t feel like it’s any worse than it used to be; quite the opposite actually thanks to the underground parking below Hämeenkatu.
And it’s not even just the city center that’s great, but there are absolutely lovely pedestrian paths all around the city so you don’t even need to take the bus or tram for moving about but instead you’re able to walk or take the bicycle should you feel like it. Helsinki feels like going back in time nowadays when I visit there even though they are claiming to be building the “best functioning city in the world” according to the millions of construction work signs all around the city.
Also while traveling around Europe I have loved walking around thanks to good planning they’ve done in multiple places. And still it’s not hard to take the car should you need to. It’s just that it’s more attracting to walk or take the bicycle instead of car when you don’t need to carry heavy stuff or something :)
And I’m also a car enthusiast so it’s not that I wouldn’t like driving or own a car. I’ve actually driven to central Europe multiple times for vacation because it’s a nice experience and you see a ton of places compared to flying. It’s just that I also like walking and looking around quite a bit 😀