There is a “Climate Change,” going
on that is very subtle. I consistently have new readers getting a
copy of Three Hundred Zeroes in Germany. What is a amazing here is
that they’re ordering more copies than the readers in the UK. English
is ESL, or “English as a Second
Language,” for them. I get occasional orders from places, such as,
Italy, The Netherlands, and elsewhere, but the Germans are reading
books in English.

In the summer of 2013, Jane and I
wandered all over Europe, hitting 13 countries. We ran into folks
from all over the globe, and it seemed that all of these globe
trotters spoke at least some English. However, you could always count
on the Germans to speak incredibly good English. A sign of fluency is
being able to understand innuendo and humor, and they excelled at it.
Is it their educational system? Is it just a desire to understand
English? Why not Spanish? Better yet, most of them did understand
other languages, but their English was excellent.

I’m seeing it in my reader audience.
I’m envious, I keep thinking back to when I was a kid; how I wish my
culture had encouraged me to become fluent in a second language,
especially German. I ended up stationed in Germany for several years,
during my military duty, and how I wish I had studied it before
arriving there.

I knew absolutely NOTHING about any
foreign language. When I flew into Germany, arriving at Frankfurt, I
found my military bus to take me to my airbase. It was a school bus
type vehicle. The driver was German, and there were no other
passengers, just me. We hopped onto the Autobahn and drove the 150 km
to Sembach AFB. As I rode along, I asked the driver about various
things I was seeing along the way. It was my first time away from the
USA.

I kept seeing signs along the Autobahn
for a city named, “Ausfahrt.” This city was huge! I had been a
ham radio operator for years and had talked with hundreds, if not
thousands, of German hams over the years, but none had ever mentioned
“Ausfahrt.” Not wanting to appear stupid, I resisted prodding the
driver about Ausfahrt. Eventually, I couldn’t stand it anymore and I
asked, “Please, tell me, I’ve heard of Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg,
Munich, etc., but I’ve never heard of “Ausfahrt,” how can that
be.” The driver couldn’t help himself, he burst into laughter and
when he was able to finally gain control, he informed me that
“Ausfahrt,” means, “Exit.” I had been seeing the exit signs
from the Autobahn and had no clue. I sat there dumbfounded and
embarrassed. Then, to add insult to injury, the driver told me, “We
have another large city named, “Einfahrt,” too. Enter!

I’m willing to be my German reader
friends, visiting the USA, will never be surprised to see the city of
“Exit,” along our Interstates.