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Gwylan

Veteran
Location
All at sea⛵
But on the train facilities theme, anyone ever travelled in Russia.
My mother unwittingly prepared me with a story of her best friend from Yugoslavia. She was shocked that the British put paper down the toilet and not in a bucket beside the toilet.

In the early 80s remembering my mother's story from 30+ years before I foolishly lifted the lid on one of these buckets. Cultural awakening or what?
Dilemma, do I throw up in the bucket or the pan?
 
Before I took over this job I was sent for weeks at a time to learn, improve the business German I had picked up along the way.
Occasionally I would use what was judged to be an inappropriate word, phrase or expletive. My instructors who all seemed to of a particular class and style would exclaim " who ever taught you that word"
I often thought of Hr Doktor Ings. I would so love being able to tell Hr Ings that it was his foundations that a large part of my life were based on.

I had a similar problem: for the first ten years here I worked with teenagers so I would occasionally speak like one. Fortunately people were pretty gracious.

I wrote to my excellent German teacher a few years back to say thank you for her influence.
 
My German teacher was Herr Ings. He had form, a small moustache and drove a Beetle. He had been interred in Germany during the war and still taught german.
His name was a great place to start. The fishy jokes were banal and multiple.
At some point I missed a fundamental point and struggled for the whole duration of my course. My father spoke good German and it was important that I respected that.

Hr Ings encouragement just before the exam was to tell me that if I passed German O level he would give up teaching.
My oral examiner was a mate's dad. I walked it. A discussion about fashion and men wearing earrings
The written I got 52%. But a pass is a pass.

For the duration of the 6th form I would greet him with "Guten Morgen Herr Ings immer noch hier" Always with a Cardiff lilt

The final irony is that I ended up running a German division and dealing with the company's most valuable customer, in German.

Before I took over this job I was sent for weeks at a time to learn, improve the business German I had picked up along the way.
Occasionally I would use what was judged to be an inappropriate word, phrase or expletive. My instructors who all seemed to of a particular class and style would exclaim " who ever taught you that word"
I often thought of Hr Doktor Ings. I would so love being able to tell Hr Ings that it was his foundations that a large part of my life were based on.

German is a brilliant language to swear in. :becool: (And I have five languages to choose from, sooooo...) :angel:
 
Oh goody ! Poo sticks ! :sad:
 
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