After a decade in Germany, I was still anxious talking to native speakers – then I realised my language skills weren’t the problem

I have prefaced every conversation with, “ Entschuldigung, mein Deutsch ist noch nicht so gut ” (“I’m sorry, my German is still not very good”) since I moved to Hermsdorf, a little village in east Germany in 2015. Its purpose was to act as a disclaimer upfront so that the German person I was talking to wouldn’t expect me to articulate complicated ideas or respond promptly and accurately to everything that was said. But mostly, my opening line was a plea for mercy, a signal that I was still learning the language and would greatly appreciate it if they spoke more slowly and clearly. They would always graciously reply: “ Ja, Deutsch ist eine schwere Sprache. ” German is a difficult language, they all agreed. And for the longest time, that was true.

Growing up in Kuala Lumpur as Malaysian Chinese, I speak English almost natively, given that Malaysia was once a British colony. I also speak Malay, Malaysia’s official language, and Mandarin and Cantonese because I needed to communicate with my grandparents. Before moving to Germany, I already spoke Italian after working on board cruise ships for years alongside Italian officers, and conversational French after dating a Frenchman. Then, I met the man who would later become my husband in a bar on the 63rd floor of a building in Singapore and a thought occurred to me: “Wouldn’t it be funny if I have to learn German this time?”

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The Dutch legalisation spared her further misery. We don’t take euthanasia lightly; we’re just grateful to have the option

My mother, Jannèt, was 90 years old when she ended her life by means of euthanasia. For years she had been suffering from numerous serious and painful conditions that, although not fatal, did make her life miserable. She always worried about her health and was terrified of what the future undeniably held in store for her: more pain, more dependence on others, more suffering, more desperation.

On 20 June 2022 at 2pm she was visited by a doctor and a nurse. They had a last conversation with her, during which the doctor asked her if euthanasia was still what she wanted. My mother said yes. She had already decided that she would take the drink herself instead of being injected. She didn’t want to mentally burden the doctor more than necessary.

Renate van der Zee is a Dutch writer and journalist

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RCEM calculates 268 people are likely to have died each week in 2023 while waiting up to 12 hours for a bed

Almost 14,000 people died needlessly last year in England while waiting in A&E for up to 12 hours for a hospital bed, a new estimate suggests.

Calculations by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) based on a large study of excess deaths and waiting times show that 268 people are likely to have died each week in 2023 because of excessive waits in emergency departments.

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Charity publishes survey findings as it calls for youngsters to be no more than a 15-minute walk from green spaces

More than three-quarters of children want to spend more time in nature, the National Trust has found, as the conservation charity pushes ministers to ensure youngsters are no more than a 15-minute walk from green spaces.

Nearly two-thirds – 63% – of parents are able to take their children to nature spaces only once a week or less, citing accessibility as the main barrier, the survey of 1,000 children aged seven to 14 and 1,000 parents by the trust and the children’s newspaper First News found.

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Labour says places have fallen by almost 40,000 since the Tories came to power in 2010, forcing parents to leave the workforce

Childcare places in England have fallen by nearly 40,000 since the Tories came to power in 2010, Labour research has found.

This includes a drop of 1,000 places between March and December last year, at a time when demand was anticipated to rise before new entitlements became available.

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The inequalities that have grown up around housing are glaring. Abolishing no-fault evictions should be just the start

More than four years ago, the 2019 Conservative manifesto pledged to abolish no-fault evictions in England, in an effort to make tenancies more secure and remove the right of private landlords to evict people from their homes at will. In the past few years, a huge campaigning effort went into ensuring that this commitment would be kept. Last week, it became clear that it wouldn’t be. Jacob Young, a minister in Michael Gove’s levelling up department, revealed in a letter to Tory MPs that the government plans to amend the bill now making its way through parliament. The promised ban on no-fault evictions (also known as section 21 notices) will not be enacted until “the courts are ready” – at some unspecified future date.

This capitulation to landlords, dressed up as a reasonable compromise, is in reality a disgraceful betrayal. The renters reform bill has cross-party support. Ministers would have had no difficulty getting it through the House of Commons with the evictions ban intact – even if some of their own MPs, including a group involved in lobbying to water down the bill who are themselves landlords , had rebelled. Polling shows that the public recognises the severity of Britain’s housing affordability crisis , and particularly its impact on younger people’s lives. Putting the interests of landlords before those of renters is a political choice.

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NASUWT annual conference backs plan for staff trained in mental health first aid in all schools and colleges

All school leaders should receive suicide prevention training to help tackle a “mental health emergency” among teachers, under a plan unanimously backed by a vote by union members.

A workforce survey of members of the NASUWT teaching union found some teachers were driven to the point of suicide by the stress of the job.

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Social housing tenants are suffering just as much as those in the private rented sector, writes Suzanne Muna . Plus letters from Derrick Joad , Rosemary Walker and Bob Colenutt

Thank you for John Harris’s excellent call for politicians to act on the housing crisis ( Neglected, derided and exploited more than ever: why won’t the UK protect those who rent a home?, 24 March ). The Social Housing Action Campaign’s perspective is that we are no longer in a housing crisis. It is system collapse. Tenants and residents in social housing are suffering just as those in the private rented sector. Last year, the vast majority of housing associations utilised the maximum scope allowed by government and increased their rents by 7%. These inflated rents will rise again this year by 7.7%.

Shared owners fare even worse. This tenure is long recognised as combining the worst of both worlds, having to pay rents and mortgages but enduring the full cost of bills, maintenance and repairs for their homes no matter how small the proportion they actually “own”.

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The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

Why is alcohol advertised openly in the UK, without pictures on the packaging highlighting the medical effects, for example, when tobacco is treated so differently? John Fisher, by email

Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com .

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