Refresh my German

Two years ago….and you wouldn’t believe it from the level of German I understand. I was watching ‘Life is Beautiful’ (not dubbed) yesterday and I could barely translate the German for my sister! Not good. My vocabulary has suffered the most. If anyones cares for a basic chat in German, please message me (or whatever is done on these boards; I just joined today). I’m planning to visit a friend who is on her year abroad in Germany and I don’t want to embarrass myself!

Ok, I’d like to volunteer. My German is also pretty stale, but I used to be really fluent having lived in Germany for 3 years. If anyone feels they’d like to have a conversation in German, let me know and we could chat live in our rusty Deutsches on MSN or yahoo. Cheers!

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.

When I learned German, people still bought records. I remember nearly none of the language except: “How much is that record?” “I want a beach chair.” and “No parking.” I can’t imagine going to Germany and using any of those. Oh, wait! I just remembered a sentence I CAN use: “I want a piece of chocolate cake with whipped cream!”

...And I remember almost none of it.
Isn’t that always the story?

I mean, 3 years of highschool Latin and I remember, “Amo, Amas, Amat, Amamus, Amatis, Amant!” (Thank you, Mr. Fern.)
Oh, and there’s, “Ecce! In pictura est puella Romana, nomine Cornellia.” (The first line to the first-year Ecce, Romani! primer.)

I hear a lot of German wives talk to each other and to their children – I can even pick out some of what they say (OK, mostly colors, days of the weeks, and numbers)...does that count?

I took 6 years of German class…you think I’d remember most of it? Well…I do remember some, but I would love to take a refresher course.