INTERVIEWER: Alright, hello. How about you introduce yourself. 
INTERVIEWEE, NORA: I'm Nora. I'm from Switzerland and I'm here at Ohio State to play field hockey and to study. Um...I'm a business major. 
INTERVIEWER: Okay what are any of your most distinct memorbe...memories about learning to read, write, speak? Any of that kind of thing. 
NORA: One memory that comes to my mind is, I was, when I was in kindergarten I went with my family to, I believe it was Greece, for holidays and we...one evening we ate at this restaurant and the restaurant's name was Onra like O-N-R-A and at this point I kind've, I don't know. I just looked at the letters and I kind of started to realize how it works. How the system with the letter works since those are exactly the same in my first name, Nora. So I kind of started to make a connection. And, I don't know. That's, that's like the first thing I remember of like, learning to start reading and writing. Yeah. 
INTERVIEWER: Okay, so what is your native language, exactly? [mumbles into silence] 
NORA: My native language, it's Swiss-German. But in Switzerland, like everything that we write or everything that is official. For example, if you are in school, we are talking German. It's, it's really different from Swiss-German, but there is... 
INTERVIEWER[in background]: so you 
NORA: some words are the same, some not. Yeah. 
INTERVIEWER: So you do know both German and Swiss-German? 
NORA: Yeah, I am in both of those language fluent, so. Yeah. 
INTERVIEWER: Which one did you learn first? 
NORA: Swiss-German. That's like the language you talk to your family and friends, yeah. 
INTERVIEWER: So did you learn that more informally at home? As opposed to... NORA: Yeah, exactly. 
INTERVIEWER: Did you learn German in school? 
NORA: German I learned in school Yeah, and like, when I... At the point I couldn't write or read, I never knew about German. Like, it, it's on...It exists only in like formal language so like school and like, I don't know. The newspaper. is in German so it's like stuff like that. 
INTERVIEWER: So Swiss-German, is there a written language for that or it's just like in... 
NORA: There is not a dictionary or something, but if I'm like writing text or emails with my friends, I always use Swiss-German but it's not like. There are so many different accents or dialects so you can't say this is wrong spelled or something. You spell it just like kind of how you say it. 
INTERVIEWER: Mmhmm. 
NORA: So I don't know, yeah. 
INTERVIEWER: Hmm...so when you learned German in school, was that difficult because or was it easy because it's so similar to what you already spoke? 
NORA: I kind of remember and also from what my parents told me, em. I had like, in my first grade, the teacher was like kind of strict. So she just came up and only talked German to us. No Swiss-German. That's what I remember. And like in the beginning, it was like... I feel like it was shocking kind of, because like wow. It's kind of a different language but there like, some, so many similar things so you learn in like really fast, but I don't know. I feel like it was kind of a shocking experience for me. But I got into like really fast. INTERVIEWER: When did you start to learn English and why? 
NORA: I started learning English when I was in 7th grade, in school. But I don't know. It was just like, maybe three lessons a week. So it wasn't like we learned it that well, that fast. So I don't know. 
INTERVIEWER: It was part of the school curriculum, to learn 
NORA: Yeah, yeah. 
INTERVIEWER: English? 
NORA: Yeah. 
INTERVIEWER: But they didn't stress it or anything? 
NORA: I mean we had and exams and everything in the English classes. And like it got more serious, like I don't know. I took it, or we had to take it..emmm...until I finished high school. So like, it got more serious later on. But like how I really learned English or what helped me the most was like, I don't know, watching movies in English or I went twice. I went to em England to like, just like a month in summer to study English, going to English school. Like, I don't know...visit, visiting another city. Yeah. So that's what helped me the most to learning English. 
INTERVIEWER: So would you say you were fluent in English before you came to America? 
NORA: Probably not. No. I wouldnÕt say fluent. But, if I go somewhere, I could talk to people. But, like, also, when I came here, it was like a lot different with like. First in school we learned the British English, kind of. And so when we, when I got here it was kind of difficult because American English is different and also like people talking really fast, people talking at the same time. People talking in slang. So it's kind of, it was kind of overwhelming, but I don't know. I feel like I got it pretty fast. I don't know. Yeah. 
INTERVIEWER: Did you find anything particularly easy or particularly challenging when you came to America and were learning En...like were thrown into that situation? 
NORA: The most challenging part was like when I was for example in the locker room and like people were talking at the same time, laughing at the same time, everyone was like talking about different topics or about topics I'd never heard of before. I don't have the vocabulary for that. So it was like who should I listen to first? And when I like was ready to say, make a comment or say something, like and I formed like the phrase in English the conversation was already gone or some... at another point. So that was the most challenging part and also, another challenging part was like the vocabulary we learned in school... It's so different than like the everyday English you use. I don't know. Yeah. To talk to people, it's so different. 
INTERVIEWER: Would you say it's more formal than... 
NORA: Yeah, we learned the formal English kind of in school. And so it's like completely different coming here and talking informal, talking about topics you don't learn in school about. So that was different, yeah. 
INTERVIEWER: Was there anything that particularly helped you learn English here? Like that sped up the process, that you relied on? 
NORA: Yeah I feel like what helped me most, just like being in contact with so many people and I don't know just talking to them and like. One thing that helped me a lot was also, like, if I don't understand, I ask people. Like, hey, what does that word mean? Hey, what do you say again? Not just like ignoring, oh I do not understand it again. Oh shit. So like, I don't know. 
INTERVIEWER: So when you go home and then come back does it take awhile to get used to it again? Like do you forget some of it? 
NORA: Yeah, I can definitely forget stuff when I get back and then I come... Also, like em, only if I like Skype in German and then I like talk again to someone here It's like whoa. It's...I have to talk English now because I don't know. So it's like, switching is like, sometimes it's hard or also like if I'm texting someone in German and talking English at the same time that doesn't work at all. That's really confusing. 
INTERVIEWER: So it's really hard to think in both? 
NORA: Yeah, it's getting better though. But, I don't know. It was hard in the beginning for sure. Yeah. 
INTERVIEWER: Hmm...alright. Anything else you'd like to add? 
NORA: I don't know. No, I don't think so. 
INTERVIEWER: Alright well thank you very much. NORA: Perfect, you're welcome.