I get that vibe. I love German as a language and very *very* rarely get to speak it, so if I went to Germany, I'd insist on doing so so I could remove all the rust that's accumulated since high school, and then get properly good at it. :3 (If I recall correctly what I know is what amounts to a 1970's-80's US English dialect, so some of the terms of phrase I know would be like calling morons "Squares" and cool dudes "Daddy-o". Nobody says these things anymore, lol)

I actually had a sort of experience like this today. We have a rep from Germany at work to help us with a new equipment install. I haven't had German class since high school maybe 15 years ago but I remembered just enough that I was able to introduce myself to him and ask his name. I had to explain that I didn't know a lot but I still remembered some and was completely lost once he started talking in German to me. But he was really excited when he heard what I said to him :)

I'm learning German right now, but I hear most of Germany knows English as a second language, so this happens a lot, BOOOO

way before ZAC or Carpenter XD