Wie geht es ihnen?
I studied German in the early 60's, 3 semesters when I was a physics major at the U. Said to be a good language if you majored in physics. I remember a lot but don't remember rules per se. I remember a lot of the vocabulary but have forgotten a lot too. I like to think I'm good at pronouncing German, something that's pretty rare among Americans (as a DJ, I have played a lot of music by German composers or bands, don't hack it when I back announce).
Problem is that living in America I almost never encounter situations where knowing German comes into play, other than as a DJ. Same with my Spanish (pronouncing Spanish isn't as difficult as German, but to my ears proficient Spanish speakers' accents in Spanish are tougher to imitate)... studied Spanish about the same length of time in high school as German at the U. While almost no German is heard around here, plenty of people speak Spanish, almost all of them having roots (probably grew up in Spanish speaking households) or having grown up south of the US border. I hear them talking, understand some. They often talk so fast I can't pick it up. I lack a lot Spanish vocabulary, but understand plenty of the more common words and phrases. I sometimes spill a few words in Spanish to Spanish speakers in an effort to impress them or in an effort to break the ice, be friendly or similar. They very seldom answer in Spanish! I figure it's because if you don't ruitinely speak Spanish they absolutely don't feel like talking to you in it because we're in an English speaking environment. It's kind of odd. I'd like to be fluent in Spanish but figure the only way I can do that is live south of the US border for a while or maybe (this has occurred to me), make a deal with a Spanish speaker to teach them ESL if they'd do the reverse for me!
My grasp of English is pretty damn good and I have a very good ear!
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