Precerpt from My 20th Language: L6 German - University German
University German At Penn State, my German skills exploded. German being a heritage language at that time in Pennsylvania, it was, for all intents and purposes, a commonly taught language. Classes were full; the range of courses was impressive—from historical linguistics to contemporary literature and, of course, writing and stylistics at higher levels and composition at lower levels. I don’t believe that is the case now, given that German is considered a less commonly taught language (anywhere) these days. My two years of high school German should have allowed me to skip one semester of college German, the rule of thumb being one year of high school covers about as much as ½ semester at college. However, I tested out of first year, skipping two semesters, one for each year of high school. That, in my mind, is great testimony to the value of Mr. Hurley’s second-year class, the one almost all the students hated and the one I devoured. That deep foundation in grammar meant a lo...