I’m listening to my German language audio files.  I’m dutifully repeating the words and phrases as I am instructed.  I am actually getting these first baby steps in the course right most of the time now…

Ask me if I understand English.

Verstehen Sie Englisch?

Ask me if I understand German.

Verstehen Sie Deutsch?

Tell me you understand no German.

Ich verstehe kein Deutsch.

While I am dutifully repeating all this on command, it occurs to me that telling someone you know no German in German is a tad contradictory. It further occurs to me that asking a person who knows no German to say how they would inform someone they know no German, in German, is ridiculous. 

But I press onward…