Tönning

        Tönning is the municipal seat for all of Eiderstedt. At that time it took about 1,1/2 hours to walk around the entire town. In the center stood a fair size church presiding over the town-square. More or less opposite the church was the municipal building which housed the offices and the official quarters of the governor of Eiderstedt who now was the husband of the owner of the piano, Around the periphery of the square were some stores such as a bakery, butcher, greengrocer and dairy-store None of them had enticing displays since nobody had any goods to display. Not far from the center of town was the small harbor which served the fishing vessels of the area, mostly shrimp-cutters. Thinking back over all these years I think of fog or rain. Never do I see the little town bathed in sunshine.
         Somewhat out of town lay the barracks which housed the British troupes. our occupiers. Strict orders had been issued: There was to be no fraternization, though following these orders seems to have been been short lived. Where were the soldiers to go on their hours off-duty? Where were we to go when marketing or visiting friends? Into town. In my minds eye I see the streets filled with people. Soldiers and towns-people literally packing the few down-town streets. Soon after my arrival I joined the throngs just walking. And listening. Ever since I was quite young I have enjoyed  listening to people speaking another language but my own. Once, as a child, in Hamburg, I followed a group of foreigners who had come for some international conference just so I could hear them speak. It didn't matter, that I couldn't understand them.
         So here I was, in little provincial Tönning just walking the streets and listening to the soldier's conversations. Slowly I started to memorize a sentence or just part of a sentence, saying it over and  over in my mind until I got home. In my room I would pronounce the snatches of conversation out loud until I felt comfortable saying the words, looking up those in the dictionary I didn't know. By this method I acquired quite a store of useful phrases in a fairly short time.Nowadays there is much talk against "rote" learning which is a) boring and b) you forget it anyway. Boring it is but really forgetting one doesn't. I remember how amazed I was to realize how much came back in a flash. Very soon I was able to hold a fairly sophisticated conversation in English.I do have to admit, though, that I have somewhat of a talent pronouncing words in other languages.
       Thus I spent the first few weeks in Tönning, slowly learning some English, and,yes, meeting a soldier here and there. It seems. all we did was walking up and down the streets and talking. Once I was trying to explain the location of a store and referred to the "round" square in front of the church to the delight of my companion. I didn't know the word plaza and it took quite a while for the chap to stop laughing and my understanding the mistake I had made. To me "square"simply meant a place and not something which is actually square.
       One day I was summoned to the office of a lieutenant who somehow had found out that I played the piano. He was looking for somebody to offer  lessons to any soldier who wanted to learn to play the piano. Was I interested to tackle that task?  I agreed gladly, partly, because I always liked to teach.
Luckily the few students I had were total beginners who basically just wanted to kill some time. So I did my best and at the same time learning more English. As I became more adventurous I found myself needing to know the past tense of a verb. Easy! I just clicked down the rule "run, ran, run" in my mind and proceeded to talk.
       these, then, were the beginnings of my involvement with the English language long before I ever thought of coming to the States.