Berlin, is always a fascinating place to be. This time, I am here on business for a week coaching a politician client and visiting publishers to see some developments in an exciting upcoming product. It is too early to talk about either topic now so more on both later…

I have been coming to Berlin since 1984. Absurd as it seems now, I was even interviewed by the Stasi in East Berlin for using the restroom once at the American Embassy library. I guess they thought I was a spy, but that experience really brought home what a repressive regime the GDR was. How things have changed for the better! It is always mind boggling for me to witness the positive transformations the city has undergone since those days. Equally mind boggling is the apparent nostalgia some adults continue to voice for the socialist dictatorship.

In conversation with young Germans, it is often surprising for me to hear how little they know about recent German history and what the GDR actually was. This is frightening as wellas somewhat amusing because the cliché is that it is the American kids who can’t point out Paris on a map and think that Hitler is still alive. I generally see declining educational standards in Germany when I talk to teenagers, when I teach company trainees and when I ask young adults in business any question that has to do with geography or international issues. These knowledge areas are closely related to intercultural competence, effective Business English training and technological skill levels, so U.S. English Services also has to maintain some focus on them.

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