though a devoted communist and anti-royalist, our english teacher, Frau Hoffman, was excellent. They teach a very high level of English at the East German Universities. English was my main study at the UEL, and along with art, had always been my distinction level subject, but her lessons were definitely worth attending. She was efficiently good at teaching her subject and I learnt a lot from her. Most of my lessons, and people used to actually fight to get into my classes which guaranteed passes, - are patterned on my year at Leipzig Uni rather than anything I learnt in England, which was often a bit of a mish-mash, depending on the teacher, and many teachers here get on purely because of years of service, rather than expertise. England is not a meritocracy - maybe it was, but has not been for some decades now. My parents constantly bemoaned the fact.. and my mother, who despised the communists said more than once: you would have got a much better education under the communists.