loved geography, would have loved to have done German as I already had the ghost of it from living in Frankfurt 68-71. And it seemed to me an admirably bolt-on-bolt-off language. And a gateway to a different world - as all languages are (except French - ha ha)
Soon after completing my German law course (whose participants were British, French, American, Belgian and Dutch--i.e. doesn't count as a "German" experience), I settled in Düsseldorf, where the local gay bar (where I once met Jimmy Somerville) did a Sunday afternoon beer bash. I met an English guy there and asked how long he'd lived in Germany. "Twelve years," he replied. "That long?" I responded. "When the British come to Germany, they either stay for two years or the rest of their life," he said. I asked him what he meant with that, which he did. "Aha," said I.
I stayed for three years, but fell well within the parameters of his "rule". Germany is far more than the German language. In Germany, assimilation is not an option proffered to the curious as some kind of "gateway." It is demanded, and the Germans stand at that gateway as gatekeepers. It's a viewpoint that has become adopted in many other European countries since 1990. And it's far more than language that one needs to open that gate these days. Or indeed in those days.
I have another question on which to test your grey matter. I'll write soon.
choice was geography or German - to my regret.
You regret the choice offered or the choice made? Indeed, German: how remiss of me. Scheiße.
loved geography, would have loved to have done German as I already had the ghost of it from living in Frankfurt 68-71. And it seemed to me an admirably bolt-on-bolt-off language. And a gateway to a different world - as all languages are (except French - ha ha)
Soon after completing my German law course (whose participants were British, French, American, Belgian and Dutch--i.e. doesn't count as a "German" experience), I settled in Düsseldorf, where the local gay bar (where I once met Jimmy Somerville) did a Sunday afternoon beer bash. I met an English guy there and asked how long he'd lived in Germany. "Twelve years," he replied. "That long?" I responded. "When the British come to Germany, they either stay for two years or the rest of their life," he said. I asked him what he meant with that, which he did. "Aha," said I.
I stayed for three years, but fell well within the parameters of his "rule". Germany is far more than the German language. In Germany, assimilation is not an option proffered to the curious as some kind of "gateway." It is demanded, and the Germans stand at that gateway as gatekeepers. It's a viewpoint that has become adopted in many other European countries since 1990. And it's far more than language that one needs to open that gate these days. Or indeed in those days.
I have another question on which to test your grey matter. I'll write soon.
2015 must have been quite a shock then.
I'm just out of bed and that's a little cryptic. Explain?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_European_migrant_crisis#/media/File:Map_of_the_European_Migrant_Crisis_2015.png