technomaNge on Fri, 02 Aug 2013 18:52:24 -0500 typed in
rec.crafts.metalworking the following:
On 08/02/2013 08:29 AM, Jim Wilkins wrote:

Except for Heidelberg the Army bases weren't in cosmopolitan tourist
destinations. They were old German Kasernes, some dating from
Frederick the Great, with WW2 plumbing at best. The Germans there were
indifferent and not too accommodating to non German speakers. I'm far
from a fluent speaker but could understand it pretty well. I had taken
German classes aimed at reading chemical and mathematical texts and
was better at vocabulary than grammar.

My experience during the 2 years spent near Ramstein was every
time I tried to use my best broken German, they immediately switched
to Americanish for the practice.

I hitchhike a lot back and forth from (near Augsburg) to Lausanne
CH - and the same sort of story. Their English invariably was better
than my German.

Yeah, dormrats had it rough. The rest of us went offbase.

There are days when I wish I had signed up with Uncle Sam. Later
I would say - company town, just spread out all over, and I knew how
the company worked. And I would not have to wonder what I was going
to wear to work today.
--
pyotr filipivich
"With Age comes Wisdom. Although more often, Age travels alone."