Studied Spanish in High School. When my son joined the 82nd Airborne and married an Italian girl that was motivation enough to study Italian. But honestly admit, can speak neither language fluently.

In high school, I took Latin, Greek, and French, and am so glad I did. When I went on to Nursing School, Latin and Greek were the basis for all the terminology, so I had a head start on most of the other students.

I was fluent enough in French I could actually think in French and was able to have whole conversations in French when a group of us went to Montreal for Expo 67, even though the dialect was different. But that was a long, long, time ago. I would love to learn Spanish and Italian now, but I don't have time. I plan to retire next year, and I have a bucket list a mile long!

You are all so accomplished -- I only took 5 years of French!

I took French because I had to..it's requirement in many Canadian schools because French and English are official languages in Canada (there is federal legislation...).

Then I had to retake it to cover off a foreign language requirement in order to graduate with my English literature degree at university.

All of this...did result in me learning certain words and phrases which is helpful when in Quebec and France. without feeling overly clueless or at least know the 'gist' for everyday stuff. But no, I'm not gifted in languages. I know this: I need to read and see words in order to learn a foreign language.

Which is why my Chinese language has never expanded. Not that I feel like improving it at this time in life..it doesn't add anything intriscally great ..especially when people I know who speak it live in another province. (Language retention doesn't work well, when speaking it occasionally only with strangers.)

I heard enough German when partner spoke with mother before she died. But I never learned much beyond "thank you", "grandmother", "grandfather", kirschwasser,etc.

But the good thing about learning a foreign language is learning how other people perceive the world. Flexes your brain. And how to connect words to the differeent "feel" of another culture.

Hi Orchid, They way you absorbed a few words of German, I've also absorbed a few words of Norwegian. My paternal grandfather was born in Norway. He spoke excellent, unaccented English, having come over to the US as a baby. But his mother never learned English, so he was bi-lingual, and loved to share his language with us grandkids.

My mother, whose heritage is German and British, though she was born here in the US, became fascinated with the Norwegian language, and studied it at university before she and my father made their first trip to Scandinavia, back in the late 60s.

So as a family, we sometimes tried to speak Norwegian at the dinner table. Thus I know how to say things like "Please pass the potatoes," ( Vennligst angi potetene) and "Thanks for the meal." (Takket være for måltidet.)

My very intrepid mother also used to speak Norwegian to our dog -- who learned to respond to her appropriately. For example, I remember that "Do you want to go outside?" is "Skal vi gå utenfor?"

Fun things to know, but I certainly don't know enough to read Stieg Larsson's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" in its original language. (But I guess he wasn't Norwegian, anyway. He was Swedish. Oops!)

Well you know something Anne, still. I think I've become slovenly..my motivation to learn another language is not quite there right now.

Attention pulled somewhere else.

I managed to learn a bit of Mandarin on our recent trip to China. It was a 23-day tour, so we had plenty of time to pick up some phrases, but in the end I only managed to remember a few. And then when we got to Macau and Hong Kong,we had to forget it all and learn different words, because they speak Cantonese there! We just couldn't do it. It was quite humorous (and frustrating at times) in Hong Kong...we kept forgetting, and would greet the hotel/restaurant staff in Mandarin and they were visibly offended and would speed off with an audible (and rather arrogant) huff.

But I was surprised that we were able to remember any words at all. I thought my brain wouldn't retain the info long enough, but was surprised and delighted to discover that it would. Maybe learning to speak Spanish over the past few years has helped keep those old brain cells working?

It's hard, though, I think, to learn a new language at our age, if we're not able to use it on a constant day-to-day basis.

I agree, Eagle Heart. I've forgotten most of the French I knew as a teenager; no opportunity to use it since then.