Between the lines: Ronald Erlandsson-Klein

• What’s the longest or most unusual word you’ve used (in your texts) this week?

Perhaps “Vermögensschadenshaftpflichtversicherung” (“pecuniary damage liability insurance”). I often have a little chuckle when I encounter legal or bureaucratic German. If I didn’t have the internet to help me, I wouldn’t understand the half of it – even though I’d say I have a pretty firm grasp of my mother tongue.

• Of all the languages you don’t speak, which one would you most like to learn and why?

I’ve learned enough languages over the years: German, Romanian, English, Latin, French, Russian, Estonian, Old Church Slavonic, Swedish, Old Norse, and Polish. And as a child I spoke Transylvanian Saxon, which means that even now I have no difficulty understanding Luxembourgers.

• What are you reading right now?

The news magazine “Der Spiegel”. Sadly, with four kids at home, I don’t have a lot of time for more serious reading. A weekly news magazine, on the other hand, is not only full of interesting articles on current affairs, but it is also surprisingly resilient. I can even take it into the sauna – making it ideal for when I have a minute to read.

• Beer or wine?

Both – beer serves as a tasty prelude to wine.

• Beach holiday or city break?

I’d go to the beach with my family and see the city on my own.

• Chocolate or vanilla?

They taste better together than apart.