In both my visits to Germany this trip I have felt completely inept, reduced to pointing and pleading with my eyes to be understood. Or more commonly after opening my mouth to say 'Guten morgen' had the other person respond in English. Considering the length of time I studied German at school I found this frustrating to say the least.
But then it came back. It didn't come in dribs and drabs, but rather in one rush of knowledge. One day I was pointing at the bread roll I wanted for lunch, the next day asking in complete sentences. I am no longer searching my brain to translate each word and then cobbling together a poorly structured sentence, I just know what I want to say. I'm not saying I'm fluent, but then I never was. But checking into the hotel the staff responded in German and in restaurants I am given the German menu, when the English one is posted outside. I had assumed all my German had left, atrophied from lack of use. Yet it was obviously stored somewhere, my brain just took a while to be convinced I needed it.
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