Gap year in a German monastery
Language learning can be full of surprises. I spent my gap year working on the farm of a German monastery (yes, they really exist, and not in ruins - Henry VIII only operated in this country). One day I was asked by the monk who was the director of agriculture to act as interpreter in a difficult situation, when a company of soldiers, from a UK guards' regiment, had set up camp on a newly sown field of oats. The soldiers thought they themselves belonged to the real world, and considered that the monks were shut up away from reality. What they didn't know was that the monk who was the head of agriculture, and with whom they had to negotiate, had served as a lieutenant in the German army in WWII, and had been in command of a regiment in the retreat from Moscow. He knew more about soldiering than they would ever know in their lives. You live and learn.
Sent by: Edmund
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