Many years have gone by since I graduated from college with two language degrees – German and Russian.
The Russian I lost in about three seconds the night a friend was hit by a car.
The German took somewhat longer due to lack of use.
Today, I only speak Englis fluently; but I can tell you hello, good-bye, please, and thank you in about half a dozen languages.
My long time laundry mat was bought several months ago by a group of very nice and friendly Brazilians. A couple of the people who work there have taken it upon themselves to help me learn a little Portuguese. I doubt I will ever learn very much, but it is nice to pick up new words and be able to at least say hello to someone in their own language.
It’s funny, now I walk in the door and tell them hi in Portuguese and they tell me hi in English. 🙂
The speak about as much English as I do Portuguese and that seemed to be a big issue for some people. When the new owners first took over, all I heard were complaints about them not speaking English. What, would it KILL you to learn a few words in someone else’s native tongue????
It is not uncommon for me to read a book that includes foreign words. I have a Kindle and there are some books where I am constantly highlighting stuff to keep; including those foreign words. When looking at getting a new book, I always read the really bad one star reviews. If I am interested in the book, I don’t need to read the good stuff. And one of the biggest complaints has to do with people whining about the foreign words in the book.
LOL, my first language was German and the next year I picked up Russian. And for some strange reason – I have no clue – I had trouble translating from Russian to English…and Englis to Russian; BUT, going from Russian to German was no problem at all. My class notes make sense to no one – including the teacher – but me. They are all in Russian and German!
One semester I had classes in Russian, German, Hebrew, and French. One day a classmate was out in the hall, as was I, waiting for class and we started talking to each other but the conversation was like a secret code because we were using whatever word in whichever language came to our head first. So we had a conversation going on in German, Russian, French, and English!
Majoring in Russian opened a world to me. I got to travel to Russia…twice; I met and lost a good friend, and I almost went back…to stay.
My interest in languages and learning things has opened quite a world.