by Hannah from India.

The very first question German speaking people ask Gentille when she fluently flaunts her German is ‘’for how many months have you been learning German?’’ when she replies ‘’ just 9 months ‘’ their eye balls widen. One of the main reasons why Gentille and I have been gasping German so quickly is because of our teacher Tom Laengner.

Though initially we had separate classes, now we attend classes together, which also means that our very patient teacher has to translate two different times, in two different languages, in English to me and in French to Gentille, which is not as easy as it sounds. Through it all we have never once seen our teacher lose his patience.

Yesterday (9.01.2019), was our first German class for this year. Tom held two empty glasses in front of us and also a pile of coins, he put 50 cent in a glass and asked us if it was too much money? We answered ‘’ No’’, he then added 50 more cents to the same glass and asked us again, we still answered no. We had arrived to a point where the glass had around 10 – 15 euros. Tom paused for a moment, there laid two glasses in front of us, one empty and one filled with coins.

Tom now read Luke 16:10 ‘’ If you are honest in small things, you will be honest in big things’’. He later explained that when the coins where initially being added, they were small in number, but they, were continuously being added and at one particular time its value was realized. When this cup graciously accepted even the smallest of coins every time the other cup denied all coins, for they were too small for it to contain and ended up being empty in the end.

Tom explained how an everyday practice would eventually lead to greater knowledge, though Tom’s wise words and actions were for us to learn The German language, deep down I knew the meaning weighed heavier.