It is the oddest thing b but my spoken german improved drastically after I left the place for good circa '84.
I found myself at a very august confirmation celebration with an old Champagne family in Vertus ( friends of the wife - she's the posh one ) some 10 years ago and the village priest - L'Abbé as I learned I should address him - sat next to me and though he spoke no english we were able to discuss a range of issues, war and politics included, in our rudimentary german.
Of all the english folk (aggressively middle-class to a man and woman) at this celebration I was clearly the only one there with anything like a second language and I could see I was immediately held in much higher regard by the french.
Oh noes! That's two hate crimes I've committed in a week, including the aggression against leprechauns.
I'm off to open a twitter account so I can submit and confess to the High Sparrow of the Faith Militant so that I may be purified and that others might learn from my example.
Oh - I intend to, h. I have a lot of down time til the end of the year and shall pick it up again. Despite the lazy journalist tag I really work quite hard and, I think this might come as a surprise to some on here, enjoy a drink or two. So time is limited, but in these couple of months I can get back to the studying
That's what actually makes it hard, b. I had basic German before I got here (GCSE) but it's difficult to talk to then in their own language. Even had incidents with the police - who you would think for legal reasons would have to speak in German but once thery know you are English ...
I did A-Level German and only GCSE French. However, due to their respective attitudes to speaking English (and the fact that I've holidayed regularly in France, while only visiting Germany on business), my French is now much better than my German.
That said, visiting Rostock a month or so ago did mean I had to dust off the German more frequently. Clearly die Ossis are not quite as well-versed in English as the westerners.
Last edited by Burney; 10-30-2017 at 03:46 PM.