I've come to realise that unless I'm in a situation where I've mentally prepared myself to use the German language (or if I'm spoken to first in German), even after living here for 6 months my instincts, naturally, still kick in to speak english.
These situations aren't so often, but I've noticed at times, it could be important to change this instinct. For example…
When someone bumps into you in the street, and I exclaim "oh I'm sorry", not quite correct…
When you need to get past people in a hurry in a big crowd, automatically the words "excuse me" come out of my mouth, not so understood….
And finally when a car stops and waves you to walk past first, I always mouth "Thank you" instead of "Dankeshone" which look nothing alike when moving the lips.
I'm assuming most people understand and although I'll be working on this downfall, I'm super glad that I can use the international communication of waving, and I never had to use the also internationally known gesture (and not phrase) 'giving someone the bird'.
