German

**where is it spoken?** Well, Germany, of course! And most people know that it's the official language of Austria as well as one of the four languages which are spoken in Switzerland. But it's also spoken in Luxembourg, bits of France and Italy and in random parts of Russia and Eastern Europe. And there are actually groups of German speakers all over the world, including in the US, Australia and South America. Granted, it's not in the league of English or Spanish or French in terms of the numbers of people who use it, but it's still quite a big player in the global market. **what sort of language is it?** As most people know, there ...

To learn another language, a second tongue, is a goal of many people however once you begin you start to realise just how complex this is. The study of German is a much simpler affair for English people than an unrelated language such as Japanese or American - ha ha, little joke there, I don't know what I mean - but once you start getting assessed on the matter it becomes something of a burden to get it all in the head. I've been learning German for over six years now in secondary school, although to be fair two of these years were basically wasted doing crosswords and watching stupid computer-animated videos of people buying Bon Jovi CDs, and was all ...

If you’ve read my op on learning languages (and if not, why not?), you’ll know that at age 6 I showed off my skills and called the German mayor of our twin town an idiot. A few years later, at a Brownies show, my, ahem, “talent” was reciting a poem in German. Can still remember it, “6 mal 6 is 36 und die Kinder sind so Fleißig.....” Although at GCSE I’d done more French than German in school terms, I knew a ton more of the latter and that’s why I chose to do it in 6th form (also started, and dropped French A/s, but that’s a long story). However, I detest the literature side of things and so opted for A/S ...