Deutsch

I just realized that I'll have to dig up my old schoolbooks to polish my German; mein LinkedIn-Profil sagt dass ich Deutsch spreche, aber ich glaube nicht dass mein Deutsch gut genug ist für eine kurze Reise... (I solemnly swear I did not use Google Translate for that sentence).

It's of course grammar that does it, I tend to add 'e's where they're not needed and drop them where they are, and Der/Die/Das/Die is a complete horror too (I get about far enough to distinguish between forms in Nominativ - usually - and while I do know the purpose of akkusativ/dativ/genitiv [I've had 5 years of Latin, after all], I just can't... absorb it. Never could.).

Nominativ: Der/Die/Das/Die
Akkusativ: Den/Die/Das/Die
Dativ: Dem/Der/Dem/Den
Genitiv: Des/Der/Des/Der

See, my father can do those 16 off the top of his head (and likes to show off that he can, too ;) ), but I can't (but then, I speak Academic English, so there), so I'll have to do a bit of studying.

Vocabulary is fine, of course, usually, and if I don't know it I'll just go for the standard wie sagt Man dass... I glaube... ja... est ist and then a description.

If all else fails, I'll start reciting the lyrics from Ich wär' so gerne Millionär, if only to do justice to the fact that I am supposed to have had four years of German class, 2 hours per week, in secondary school. I'm sure my former German instructor will be very happy to hear that of all the things he tried to teach me, I remember that song best. And Flämmchen, of course.

Ah, but as long as I know zwei Bier und ein Bratwurst bitte I won't starve.