10.02 — good morning good morning my dear diary and my dear friends … you may be shocked or annoyed that i type in english but to say the truth: i prefer to do it because i have a very important goal this is to become faster in typinng in english and also to become more fluid in „speaking“ and thinking in english … the reason is that i was 4 or 5 years ago in Britain for to MEET the PRINCE OF WALES who is nowadays the king in Britain and named himself Charles III. When i was travelling there i was laughing about the opinion of Hans Wall who told us: „i cannot make business with britains because i’m speaking that little english, it does not work!“, we were laughing both, Jürgen Aha and me. But when i was there in the appointment i realized how little was left of my former knowledge … i was speaking hardly about my proposals (but remarked how many words were lacking), but then i understood NOTHING from their answers … Only two or three years later i confessed in my inner heart, that it was the lack of english knowledge that our project did not progress … so now, since nearly two years, i’m trying very hard to find occasions to speak english, and, what a miracle, i even asked Helmut more than one year ago if we shouldnt speak english in our daily life, and he agreed immediately, that i had not expected, i was nearly sure that he will say „no“, but he saide „YES why not“, and since then we are speaking english … and well, what can i say i must even say that our relationship was improved by that because we are SPEAKING more with each other, because there is now an additional reason for to speak: to speak english! If this will continue, then i will write a book „how to fix your relationship by speaking english“.

After my opinion we all in Germany speak too little english, because we have that little occasions. In other countries which are smaller and have not such a huge mass of speakers in one language like there are in the german, french, italian and portuguese language, there people have much more habitude to read and write english texts and have more experience in using electronic translators … we all in Germany, France, Portugal, Italy — and if you so want in Britain too – we are „lazy“ when it comes to speaking or learning another language than the mother tongue language …

So as i am NOT young, dont go to cafes or touristic sites and so on, therefore i try to integrate the english in my daily life as do the scandinavian people, the baltic people, all people whose languages have only few speakers … i think there IS no other way to get more fluid and easy in speaking english and for not to forget again all my knowledge … my old principle „do it daily“ … 10.20

— 13.19: Heute kommen die Heizkostenverteiler-Ableser … ich dachte sie müssten längst da sein … Gestern war ich mit A. auf dem kleinen, von mir so geliebten „Weihnachtsmarkt“ im Nikolaiviertel (Feuerzangenbowle“) – hier läuft in Dauerschleife der alte Film mit seinem schönen, nostalgischen Sound, es war schön voll gestern, i was happy about that because i have always such a big empathy with the little small traders and the people who organize these events … this is all very much work and it is not sure that it will be worthwhile or pay off … please, if you read and you are very sure in english, please notice for me if i chose an expression which is not so suitable or if i make mistakes … 13.23

13.24 — PS it was very nice there, no loud music, not very many smokers, a nice atmosphere and i think for to inhale the atmosphere this is the reason why we visit such places … later we even had a look to the little Theater in the nicolai quarter (i think they play still the „Zille Revue“, but i dont know), to the „remembering library for the victims of the stalin era“, and we visited LAST MINUTE the Zille Museum which has new released, the exhibition is really exceptionally nice and good an worth to be seen, it was me who had the idea to found the Zille Gesellschaft in 1998 or 1999, i think it was in 1999, dont know exactly anymore, we did this in the house of the „successor“ of Heinrich Zille, Kurt Mühlenhaupt, in Bergsdorf … taking part was Hein-Jörg Preetz-Zille and some painters and collectors of Zille’s pictures, drafts, books … — 13.30

14.36 — so, the heating cost meter reader (Heizkostenverteiler-Ableser) are through, it was only one guy, his name MICHAEL, he is living in Friedrichshain … so its great that he could find everything and read everything … now i have to leave soon for the christmas market in Nikolai quarter, i start here at 4.30pm, so this is in two hours … will not be able to make a „kiosk“ in this little time but i try … hope somebode of the three lovely people will invite me because i have left ALL my last cash the day before yesterday at EDEKA and on my bank account there is no money for the moment at all … but i dont worry i will be invited … — 14.41