Polyseme. English is full of them.

Yeah, it does.

English is easy to speak badly but be understood.
German is easy to speak badly and be not understood at all.

I speak German just well enough that's it's fluent, terrible and comprehensible. And well enough I hear many of my errors.

Thats true. But still, when I went to a wedding in canada in my teens, people there tought I was really interested to get to know something about bears when all I wanted was a beer

And then there's

Die Vorstellung (noun)
- the product of your imagination
- the situation where someone introduces someone, as well as the act of introducing someone
- an artistic performance or show (with an audience present, practicing doesn't count). For instance in a theatre, a circus, or by a street artist.

The first two correlate with the verb, but AFAIA it can't have the noun's third meaning, that's why I think it's worth mentioning. Context can be provided by an additional component, like TheaterVorstellung (theater performance), but that's often left out if the context is clear already.

Should have asked him to say "thistle".... it kills my (very fluent) other half. It's now known as a th-thingie.

Wait till you get to "vorbeugen" ("to prevent")

Old German business saying: "Vorbeugen ist besser als auf die Schuhe kotzen"...

I heard once that only about 25% of nouns in German are masculine, 40% are feminine and 35% are neuter. Since then, if I don't know the gender of a noun, I go with the probability and use the feminine. It makes the adjective endings easier too!

The English word 'squirrel' is also kryptonite to most native German speakers. On the other hand, I once entertained an entire office Christmas party for a half-hour-or-so with my repeated mis-pronunciation of 'Eichhornchen'.

Squirrel is also very difficult for native French speakers.

In the other direction do lots of Brits seem to struggle to pronounce Grundstücksverkehrsgenehmigungszuständigkeitsübert ragungsverordnung...

Squirrel? Try "Oichkatzerl" or "Oichkatzerlschwoif" for squirreltail.

I see your "Grundstücksverkehrsgenehmigungszuständigkeitsüber tragungsverordnung" And raise you: "Rinderkennzeichnungsfleischetikettierungsüberwach ungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz"

The forum wont allow the full word in one piece...

Just a general "life hack"