I didn’t ever learn more than a smattering of German… I really, really wanted to do it at school and at the end of the first year we had an opportunity to choose it, alongside Spanish, Latin and Domestic Science. I chose German first, Spanish second, latin third and I didn’t want to do Domestic Science. I was put into the Latin group because I “wasn’t very good at spelling…” How ridiculous! I was hopeless at Latin, despite my best attempts.
I did try and learn German several times at evening classes… but I never managed to get very far… however, I did pick up a bit of the language, and one of the many things I really liked was the word ‘bitte’ in response to ‘danke’… I thought this was such a brilliant idea and wished there was an equivalent in English. As it si, when someone says thank you, you can only repeat it, or say ‘that’s all right’. or ‘you’re welcome’, or ‘not at all’… but there is no actual word.
I think on the whole British people are polite, and are always saying thank you, and into the gap after someone says it the other person has begun to say ‘no problem’, or ‘no worries’… which isn’t at all the same as ‘bitte’ and actually suggests that there was a problem or a worry. I irrationally really dislike both terms, even though they are said politely and with a courteous intent.
In today’s paper, Christopher Howse, one of the columnists, writes an excellent and amusing article about this. He also comes up with another sentiment which has crept in, to replace a word we haven’t got; in France you might say ‘bon appétit!’ and in other languages there must be a similar cheery and friendly exhortation to enjoy your lovely meal… ‘enjoy’ that is the key word, and now whenever a waiter presents you with a dish he cries ‘enjoy!’…
Read what Mr Howse has to say
Lois Elsden 
Kein Problem, nicht wahr! This reminds me of the puzzling “options” we had at school. In the first year we all did French. Then in the second year the “A” class ie the top third did German as well. When it came to choosing for “O”levels those who were good at French and Gernan were encouraged to do Latin. However, Latin was set against Geography so you couldn’t do both. Everyone on the Lit side had to do History. THe last option was Biology or Art. Iwas no good at drawing and not particularly interseted in the biology syllabus which consisted of plant life and the life cycles of frogs and worms. I remember a word I liked from the course, “cotyledon” as I liked the sound of it. The only biology I was interested in at age 14-16 was human biology! A friend of mine wanted to do a mixture of arts and science subjects at “A” level and was told that that this was not possible as you had to be either Arts or Science. What nonsense!
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At Bari’s school, the less academic had to go into science… the “brightest and best”did Latin and modern languages… Bari did science…
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