Amid record unemployment, young people in Spain are desperately looking for a way out. One village believes it has found the answer: German courses for residents, to prepare them for a life in Europe's largest economy. But their teacher is trying to warn them that not everything is perfect in the land of beer and sausages.

The same word has been on the whiteboard for a couple of minutes now, as if taunting them that they'll never master this language. Antonio, Manuel, Francisco, Ana Belén, Mari Carmen, the other Francisco and shy Alicia, all of them stare at the front of the classroom, at that word. Their lips move silently.

It has something to do with clothing, the teacher hints.

At the beginning of the lesson, she proposed a game. No grammar today, she said. Instead, they'd do something fun to celebrate the last day of class -- a game of hangman, guessing German words they'd learned in the last three months.

The word on the board, printed in capital letters, reads "L E _ E R J A C K E." Just one letter is missing to make it "Lederjacke," leather jacket.