Learning to stand up for oneself is a hard skill to develop and even more so when one is navigating this under established power dynamics. The fear of having one’s concerns discarded without question is another daunting factor. To see them reduced to mere imagination and dismissed has always been, for me, an even bigger disappointment than the actual issue at hand. It feels as if I am incapable of having agency and a sense of self-awareness of my feelings.
Before I moved to Germany, I had visited the country twice and during one of those visits I had decided to do a short introductory course in the language. I remember always having a problem with the pronunciation of the letter K during this period and no matter how hard I tried I just couldn’t get it and especially when it was part of a word.