At school, like most other people, I had my strong points and my weak points. While I had talent for the sciences and mathematics, languages generally had me floundering the entire term. How I managed to pass my exams for French and German, I will never know. However, having studied biochemistry at university, my problems with learning languages faded into obscurity. Science is something of a universal language in itself, and after school the thought of ever learning a new language was long forgotten.

After working hard for my master's degree, however, I came to the realisation that if I was to get the placement I wanted I would have to look further afield than my home city of London. The application that came back with the best potential was actually one in Frankfurt, Germany, and this sparked the rather unsettling forethought that I would have to learn German in London before going out there, if that ended up being the best job offer.

Predictably, it was, and while I searched for available German courses in London I suffered flashbacks from schooldays long gone, where it took me a full 2 weeks just to learn how to count to 10 - and I'd promptly forgotten most of the numbers the following week. While there wasn't much a problem in finding a German language school London provided me with almost too many options. Should I learn from home? Attempt a linguaphone course? Should I go buy a dictionary and lexicon and gradually make my way through them? It was obvious what I needed - guidance.

Thus I signed up for a demonstration German class in London. The first session was free, so I figured I had nothing to lose. The first thing we learned was how to say hello, introduce ourselves, and ... count to 10 - at which point I promptly realised I somehow knew 1 to 3 already. This was off to a good start.

So, in the intervening months between graduating and starting my placement in Frankfurt, I attended a few German classes. 3 months later I was surprised to find I had a basic grasp of the tongue. I was also lucky enough to befriend a group of German students who were studying English at the time - yet another way for me to study German in London - though we spent rather a lot of time 'studying' the best German beers available in the UK...

Still, as far as my London German courses went, they were surprisingly painless. I jetted off to Frankfurt to find that I was perfectly able to communicate with most people - albeit in a slow, stuttering way. I've been living here for a year and a half now, and often get complimented on my fluency - living in Germany has helped no end, but without that start in London, I would never have gained the confidence and fundamental grammar to get to this point!