4. One Phone Call to a Lifetime's Learning

4.  One Phone Call to a Lifetime's Learning 

Kurt Herzog had been a Luftwaffe pilot in WW 2 and indeed had won an Iron Cross for his wartime service. He and wife Anna came to start a new life in Australia and escape from the turmoil of post war Europe. His influence on me was quite pivotal. Prior to meeting the Herzogs, I had probably preferred French as a foreign language (and was studying Latin at the same time, which incidentally proved to be a great help later in my studies of Middle High German). Within a very short time, German became my favourite language and this was largely due to the personal contact I had on a regular basis with native speakers. At the end of the evening, Anna, who was a professional cook, would produce a cup of coffee (eine Tasse Kaffee) and a fabulous Torte or Kuchen, and often enough my favourite Schwarzwälderkirschtorte (Black Forest cherry cake with genuine German sour cherries!). German for me suddenly was exposed to its own personal and cultural advertising campaign. I should add at this stage that my father used to drive me to the Herzog's place once a week and he as a teacher was able to help the Herzog's kids with their English, Maths, Geography and any other areas of the curriculum where Dad had some expertise. So, in this sense, I didn't feel so bad about getting free German tuition.

Herr Herzog did something remarkable for me right from the very start. He made me SPEAK the language. I remember vividly one special evening when he said to me: Graham, I want you to tell me in German how a car works. I almost fell out of my chair! At that stage,  I couldn't even have told him how a car worked in English, not that I am much better with cars now. In a very short period of time, Kurt explained to me how it all worked and gave me words like  Vergaser, Bremsen, Zündkerze, Gangwerk, Benzin, Öl, Motor (Carburettor, brakes, spark plug ...  lit. lighting candle ... gears, petrol, oil, motor) and showed me how to put them in sentences. I blundered my way through the task and somewhat relieved when it all came to an end, slumped back in my chair. Then he said to me: OK, Graham, let's go over it again!  (You are joking), I thought, but we did go back over it and I got a fair bit right this time. And yes, you guessed it, when I finished, he said once again: OK, let's do it one more time! I did struggle through it a third time but once again much more fluently than my first paltry efforts. What Kurt had given me though, were the tools for learning to speak a foreign language, which in the 1950s and 1960s was just a non event. From that time on, I have regularly made myself SPEAK a language by putting myself in a similar situation to the one Kurt had given me that night. My fluency in speaking German took off exponentially from that night onwards. Danke, Herr Herzog!

Berlin 2013 Spree River