At lunch with other male retired professors, we got on the subject of the training we have had in other languages besides English. When I worked for my PhD, I was required to take doctoral German. The class met at 8 AM. I got the feeling that most of the students were like me - not deeply committed to the subject matter. I had taught 5th grade for 4 years and had gone to graduate school to get an advanced degree, which was required by Maryland's Dept. of Education. I had started with a goal of a master's degree but my advisor told me of a new program that gave scholarships for a fulltime study for a doctorate.
For my German course, I had to take a test. I had had no instruction or practice in German but I thought maybe the fact that English is a Germanic language would enable me to pass the exam without an early morning class. It didn't. The examiners told me I was terrible: two standard deviations below the mean. Take the class! I did and then tried again. They told me I was now only one standard deviation below the mean and they would credit me with passing! Stop showing up at 8AM.
Later, leading a student group through Germany and Switzerland, I found I was 99% ignorant of speech and signs. Many kind people switched to English for me. Thank you, kind people.
