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Pastimes : THE SLIGHTLY MODERATED BOXING RING -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (14426)	6/7/2002 3:20:32 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

I would do markedly better on another trip to Paris, but would still feel uncomfortable being much on the spot. I understand. Languages are one of those use-it-or-lose-it things. I was fluent once in Spanish, passable in French and German. That was when I was a student. I never used French or German since and I wouldn't venture more than a few pleasantries. I can make myself understood in Spanish and I can read it, but I don't understand spoken Spanish well at all. I studied both Japanese and Slovak as an adult. Briefly. I never had the energy to to deal with multiple Japanese alphabets or with declining Slovak adjectives. I can still muster up the pleasantries but that's all. I think that you have to learn languages as a kid and keep them up or they're gone.

To: Neocon who wrote (14426)	6/7/2002 6:09:05 PM
From: Ish	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

<<I took French for about 4 years in junior and senior high school, and a couple more years in college.>> I was in Germany for 16 months in the army. 7 months in the barracks and 9 months living in an apartment on the economy. Picked up a little German during that time. When I got home I was fishing off a pier in Wisconsin. One older woman thought she owned the pier and would cast over anyone's line who tossed out in "her" area. Did that to me twice!! I noticed she and her husband were speaking German so I asked her in German not to do it again. She smiled and let me fish in peace. BTW I caught a 10 pound rainbow trout that day.