Remarkably, I have just managed to have a conversation for nearly an hour IN GERMAN. Admittedly, I didn't do much of the talking, but I understood almost all of it.
And our scope was wide ranging – from the threat Europe faces from Russia, to swimming with wild dolphins; from the economics of running a ship slower than it could go to the best way to get a good photograph of the sunset; and from the reason the incessant rocking of the ship is so tiring (that even while you're sleeping your mind is still active, trying to make sense of the noise and the movement) to how military aeroplanes are much more polluting than civilian ones.
All of which was very pleasant and reasonably uncontroversial. Until we reached “South Africa was a much better place 20 years ago – now it is just kaput”. I disagreed, saying it is better now, but he repeated that he thought it was a disaster and the whites should never have relinquished power. And with my utterly limited German, all I could offer was a plaintive “but now they are free”, which didn't wash with him at all.
I was reminded again of how much I value the ability to argue about politics (reasonably) articulately, and how much I would hate to live again in place where I couldn't speak the language.
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