<p>Oh, I should also say that we had three German au pairs and three German exchange students. They didn’t teach my daughter any German, BUT we know from them that kids start learning English in Germany in the first grade. </p>
<p>If a kid gets through Gymnasium – to the 13th grade – to get the abiteur (their version of the high school dipoloma) and therefore go to University, s/he is fluent in English. It is hard to believe that you will learn enough German in two years to be as fluent in German as they are in English. If you do anything technical, almost everyone will answer you in English once they hear your accent. You will learn the most German by trying to hang out with German students in your free time. Therefore, you can take four semesters of German, and will be better prepared than my daughter, but you don’t really need to (Just in case you want to take those course six classes instead, which is actually what my daughter is doing).</p>