"A Smattering of Russian..."

Now in Slovakia, I’m finding that most people have had “book learning” in school of English, but are reluctant to use any of it and struggle with pronunciation. However, quite a few people speak some Russian. The little lady who manned the ticket register in Zilnia understood perfectly what I needed when I converted from English to Russian, and smiled sweetly as she gave me the ticket, and then remarked that she was happy she could help. The little lady who serves as concierge here at the hotel at which I’m staying in Novo Mesto speaks no English, a little German (which I understand about half the time), and a good bit of Russian. We have, therefore, conducted all of our transactions, information and direction in Russian, and she has been very patient with my rustiness as it’s been nearly 15 years (gosh, has it been that long?!) since I’ve had to use it much. As I was musing on how “convenient” it has been for me to have this proverbial bullet in my holster, I was reminded that Jonathan Harker had a similar experience on his way to Drac’s castle:

“I found my smattering of German very useful here; indeed, I don’t know how I should be able to get on without it.”