Since the general standard of language teaching is so low, it's hard to believe that they actually expect you to be able to use the language conversationally!

Then I guess I was truly lucky. My German teachers were all very good at their job, and managed to impart a passion for the language of Goethe. It was from reading the blurb on one of them that I learned that "MA Hons. Cantab" did not stand for Canterbury, but Cambridge.