I got to learn German as a “second foreign language” 2 or 3 years after I started learning English.
At first we were using some “Deutsche Demokratischen Republik” style textbook. It was any teenager’s nightmare, full of conversations between “comrades” and texts like “my father is a worker; my mother is a teacher”.
Looking back, the comrades’ talk actually seems fancy – as fancy as “Long live Chairman Mao” probably.
Anyway, I think I’m too old to pick up any new language, say Italian, so it’s probably easier to refresh my German.
