Lounging sounds like just the ticket!

What's Swedish like to learn, by the way? How does it compare with other languages you've learnt as regards difficulty?

So you like having Kaffee + Kuchen on the train with new friends you met on the way to the Mardi Gras on a rainy day while wearing a leopard print jacket with a book in the pocket?

Coffee twice? And the third word in your profile. I'm sensing a theme ...

As an aside, Irene: have you ever heard "herrklären" - the German version of "mansplaining" - actually being used in normal everyday conversation?

I love it - and the French "mecspliquer" - but I've never actually heard it "in the wild".

Same old story: Idiots are full of brash confidence and intelligent people are full of doubts.

By the way, Irena, your written English is impeccable.

Same as everywhere: some people overestimate their abilities and some underestimate them - I don't think it has anything to do with Germans as such.

Try starting a conversation with most English speakers who have "fluent German" on their CVs and you'll find that they can barely order a coffee.

I've posted about this before and that was how I phrased it: "Oh to have that guy's confidence!".

I once met a German guy who asked me if I "was sure" that my first name was pronounced EE-AN because he "had always pronounced it EYE-AN".

So I offered to call my mother and check.

An apple a day keeps anyone you can think of away if you throw it hard enough.

The podcast? Loved it.

I watched Airplane a couple of years ago for the first time in years. It holds up pretty well.

Nice article, Lynn!