I love it when I'm reminded of a word I love

@FoxyQueen I've never studied German, but I visit Germany frequently and other German speaking countries and I find it much easier to understand and speak a little than any of the other languages that I have contact with. I often describe myself as a deutschaphile - my own compound invention mixing two languages.😄

@FreddieUK I took two years of German in high school (30+ years ago 😬🫣)

I remember some of it in bits and pieces.

A while back, I was working in a metal fab shop and my supervisor spoke english and spanish. He would occasionally speak to me in spanish. That set off my german feature and I'd reply back to him in german. Then we'd just look at each other. Lol I told him that he can reteach me spanish and I'll teach him german and we will have our own secret language.

@FoxyQueen That sounds wonderful. I am not a 'natural' at languages, so I was pleased last year when I was on a train in Germany and ordered something from the buffet in German and the German lady standing next to me said how lovely it was to hear someone British speaking German. She believed we didn't teach it in school as much now. And she's right, sadly. I picked up some of my German when I used to accompany my foreign language teaching colleagues on exchange visits, if one of their male colleagues wasn't available. That really helped me get into the culture as well as we stayed with families. As you know, so much more of language learning is about understanding the culture as well as the words and grammar.

@FreddieUK I'm linguistically good when in class. Once class is over, so is my ability. Lol i have never been able to retain languages.

@FoxyQueen You almost certainly underestimate your ability. I think we all do. I think it's a matter of confidence when speaking to a native speaker. They are usually very forgiving. I find it is the ignorant English speaker who knows no other language at all who is quite unforgiving of those who have a go at speaking English. They are an embarrassment.

@FreddieUK Oh totally! Americans traveling outside of America are some of the worst tourists that exist.

When I was on Islay last, I went to the local cafe in Port Ellen. There was an American family there for breakfast. When it arrived, they complained to the waitress, asking what she had served. Where was the bacon? Where were the hashbrowns? Why weren't they served an American breakfast?

After they left, apologized to the waitress and assured her, not all Americans are the same and that they should realize they aren't in America. They aren't going to always get American food and they should enjoy the cuisine of the places they visit.

She said it happens all the time. She said Americans and Belgians are the worst at it.

I found that sad that she was able to even say that. ☹

@FoxyQueen Belgians?! I'm surprised to hear that. I know the Brits can be pretty boorish abroad. When they go to Spain, they want the weather but nothing else and there are some places which really are just the UK on the Spanish coast. I guess if the Spanish can make money out of it, why not? If I don't like the food, I'm served abroad (or anywhere else for that matter) I keep my mouth shut and try to be polite that someone has gone to the effort of serving what I ordered, even if in my ignorance I didn't know what I was going to get.