I took Geman in high school and college, and really liked it then. It's not as bad as some people make ti out to be, but on the other hand, does have some annoying quirks (aside from all of the masculine, feminine, and neuter variations in case). My pet peeve is that Germans don't seem to be able to invent any new words; they just take a bunch of existing words, string them all together, and come up with a new word which basically is a description of what the new word intends to convey. Perhaps the classic is Donaudampschiffgesellschaftskapitan, (I think I spelled it correctly), which means Danube River Steamboat Company Captain (but in German, it's just a single word). Things like Fernsprecher (Long distance speaker) for telephone furnish another example. Anyway, I like German, but don't think it's a Five.
