We were fortunate in our high school to have for our lead German instructor a lady who was highly educated (doctorate in chemistry from the University of Graz, Austria) and very dedicated to the best of German literature and culture. Our German V class used to go to the State German Contest over in Athens and win the top spots every year. The order changed all around among us, but we were always the top five. I think she was the only native German teaching on the high school level in Georgia at that time. We made straight 800s on the German achievement test, too!
I am told that I still have a rather pronounced Austrian accent in my speech -- which is funny, because people take me for a native speaker (nobody would learn to talk like that on purpose, would they?) It's sort of like learning English from an instructor from the Deep South . . . . :-)
I’m awed! Doesn’t Jurgen Proknow have an Austrian accent? I think I read that somewhere. I could listen to him for ages ... one line in a superb film version of Robin Hood (with Uma Thurman) where Jurgen plays the cruel Sir Miles, intended for Maid Marian — he says, “Catch the poacher!” Only his pronunciation of “poacher” is more like, “poe-chow-eghhhhhh.” I LOVE it!