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IT would have helped if our teacher had tipped us off.

Those clues help, but they don't apply to words like Buch, Schiff, Gott. What about er endings? Vater, Mutter, Schwester, Kinder, Metzger? Or Milch? I remember the articles for some of those, but not all.

What really got to me, though, was how the masculine article "der" could change in another case to "die," confusing me on its gender.

I had the pronunciations down pat because of hearing older relatives speak German. The spelling did not bother me as long as it was written in English lettering. But the grammar was a nightmare. I managed to get mostly A grades, and a couple Bs, but most of the tests were written. I never felt like I'd be able to speak it well.

But that was put to the test some years later in my 30s when I was a college student. I took a Spanish seminar class which ended with a trip to NYC to visit a Spanish theater and some Spanish restaurants in Greenwich. We stayed at a hotel in Manhattan near Times Square which catered to tourists. My landlady had joined the seminar, mostly for the trip. Since we were older than the other students, we spent some of our free time in the evenings at the hotel lounge to meet other people. There were a couple groups of German tourists.

When I heard a group at a table next to us speaking German, I introduced myself to them in German, told them that my grandparents were born in Germany, and that I had learned a little German in school. I spoke slowly, searching my mind for the right words. They understood me and were patient with my efforts. They invited us to join them and insisted on buying me a beer. One of the group knew some English, so between us, with a lot of pantomiming and some sketches on bar napkins, we were able to communicate. I probably slaughtered the grammar, but they were polite enough to act like they didn't notice.