How long German words are made.

I studied German for two years in a rather silly audio lingual course .. so that I can converse with someone who also took that same course..

and so that I am loaded with useful phrases for life such as

"what is that over there, a featherbed?"
"I sharpen my pencil in a pencil sharpener"

and
"I have a cold".. which is actually very useful because really, if you have a cold, you cannot speak German properly -- It sorta sounds all wrong.. Ich habe schnuphen.. so that has been the most useful phrase.

but don't think it was worth two years.

I am not a fan of audio lingual language teaching.