Question

Describe Helen's progeress in learning the German language

Answer 1

Miss Reamy, Helen's German teacher could use the manual alphabet and Helen herself had acquired a small vocabulary so they would often talk together in German. In a few months she could understand almost everything her teacher said and before the end of the year she could read Wilhelm Tell with greatest delight. She made more progress in German than in any of her other studies. She had gained a comfortable level of familiarity with the German language. In school, Frau Grote, her German teacher in school and the principal Mr Gilman who had learned the finger alphabet gave her instruction. Frau Grote was quite slow and inadequate when it came to spellings but out of the goodness of her heart she laboriously spelled out her instructions to Helen in special lessons twice a week to give Miss Sullivan a little rest. In German, she partly read with her fingers and partly with Miss Sullivan's assistance. Schiller's "Lied von der Glocke" and "Taucher," Heine's "Harzreise," Freytag's "Aus dem Staat Friedrichs des Grossen," Riehl's "Fluch Der Schonheit," Lessing's "Minna von Barnhelm," and Goethe's "Aus meinem Leben." Helen took immense delight in these German books, especially Schiller's wonderful lyrics, the history of Frederick the Great's magnificent achievements and the account of Goethe's life. She was sorry to finish "Die Harzreise," because it was full of happy witticisms and natural descriptions.