I love that phrase. Back in the 1980s there was a German ward up in Salt Lake City. Before I transferred to UCLA, once I went with a housemate up to the German ward--she's been studying German for years and gone to Germany on summer holidays.
It was definitely a graying ward--Laura and I definitely stood out. The ward members were so kind in greeting us. But because I look like a northern Euromutt, everyone addressed me in German first. Even after I sprained "ich spreche kein Deutsch."
Years later, I had a linguistics degree and I was stuck in Los Alamos, New Mexico while my husband did some environmental consulting. I jumped into a second-semester German class to amuse myself. Since I had no children and no job, it was easy to keep up. I have really good memories of that class.
though I'm still basically spreching no deutch-man.
posted by Reluctant Nomad at 
I love that phrase. Back in the 1980s there was a German ward up in Salt Lake City. Before I transferred to UCLA, once I went with a housemate up to the German ward--she's been studying German for years and gone to Germany on summer holidays.
It was definitely a graying ward--Laura and I definitely stood out. The ward members were so kind in greeting us. But because I look like a northern Euromutt, everyone addressed me in German first. Even after I sprained "ich spreche kein Deutsch."
Years later, I had a linguistics degree and I was stuck in Los Alamos, New Mexico while my husband did some environmental consulting. I jumped into a second-semester German class to amuse myself. Since I had no children and no job, it was easy to keep up. I have really good memories of that class.
though I'm still basically spreching no deutch-man.