“Should I report her to the police immediately, as a former SS Nazi? Or should I go to her and ask, ‘Wie geht’s, Frau Aufseher,’ which translates as, ‘How goes it, Frau Overseer?’

You’re never going to get good enough at any other language besides English to do anything other than ask where the bathroom is, and if you try to pretend you speak another language well enough to have a conversation, luring some poor Deutschman into thinking he can talk to you in German, you’re going to wind up staring blankly at him about 15 seconds after you make the mistake of asking “Wie geht’s?” and he rambles back some soliloquy in a language you can’t understand.

And for the boys, which Kevin Elyot's adaptation of Isherwood's own memoir doesn't shy away from – there's an awful lot of Wie geht's Deinen Vater going on in the cellar bars and clubs.

"Wie geht's, Mr. Flixman?" he cried.

Well, wie geht 's mit the work, eh?