Re: Learning a foreign language

I took six weeks of Spanish in high school, and a year of Latin (wonderful for our English word origins).

I spent 3 years in Germany when 19; the family we rented an apartment from spoke little English, so we picked up German quite quickly. I really enjoyed the challenge, and interacting with them bonded us. My hubby had a harder time with it, so left it up to me. All these years later, whenever I hear a conversation spoken in German, I still can follow the gist of the topic.

Fast forward to my time spent working in the library. I tutored a group of Mexican men (working for a year in our community) in English a few times a week. Here's the clincher to all of this: a young man from high school worked with me some evenings, trying to teach me a few basic French
words, and general conversation. At the end of our 15 minute sessions of fun, he asked if I could recall the words.
Invariably, I replied, "Si". You can't take me anywhere in France, so I'm staying home.

Re: Learning a foreign language

Latin and french were compulsory at Grammar School - I coped better with Latin than with french because I could see the purpose behind it and, having been brought up RC, I already had the Mass Latin as an introduction.

Since leaving full time education I have learned a little Erse, Russian and Japanese - but am not fluent in any of them as the classes were closed down when pupil numbers dropped below 10. I suppose I could have carried on alone but, as Mups pointed out, one really needs to be able to practice with a native speaker.

When I was planning my trip to India - knowing I would be staying off the tourist route with a family who spoke no English - I went to Uni to learn Hindi for 6 months before hand. Never managed to write it - the Devanagari script is lovely, but complicated - but I did become quite competent in spoken Hindi.

Am now about to embark on Italian - a lovely, musical language and, perhaps, my Latin may help. Have made friends with the woman who owns the Italian Deli in town and have a neighbour who is Italian - so, hopefully, I will have someone with whom to practice.