Many Germans may be shy, but from time to time they like practicing their rusty english.

I think we don't expect you as an American to speak another language at all. When you tell you are from Canada, we do expect you to talk french. ))

Problem with the language if you don't have a clue at all about the language is how to pronounce it, how it is built etc. I would suggest you concentrate on some of the most common phrases.

How about you list a bit more what you would like to be able to say / do? We might give you some recommendations.

Googeling might give you some ideas. If you have a list, we could even try to give you a recording of them so you would know how to pronounce them.