[Dolly]

Anyone fluent in a language other than your native one?

I've been trying to learn Italian and French half-heartedly online. I have no real use for these languages other than an intellectual pursuit but I would love to speak and understand them. One day I'm going to either buy the Rosetta Stone lessons or drive to a nearby college to take classes. I used to be pretty good at German but am slowly losing this skill.

[Rosinante]

Good on you! Learning languages is so fascinating, from the point of view of relating to others (you never know, one day I met a Russian outside our church in a small northern town, and he was stunned to discover a Russian speaker and I was fascinated by him) and just for broadening the mind.

It does vanish though, so work at that Deutsch!

I took French from the age of 8 (went to a fairly ordinary - impoverished primary school that just happened to have a teacher who could take French) eventually to degree level. It's really coming into its own at the moment because so many French-speaking Africans have joined our church.

I took Russian at university just because I could. That was fascinating because it is such a beautiful, creative, flexible language, and learning it does away with the 'grim' stereotype westerners can have about Russians. It's also great if you ever visit Russia, because they're so blown away that a foreigner can speak their language.

I've got German to a lesser level and that was handy when I spent 3 months there last year.

I've been learning Spanish for about 4 weeks, just to have a bit of knowledge for the holiday next week. I'm lucky, in that once I know a few grammatical constructs and some vocabulary, I'm pretty good at extrapolating more meaning from what's being spoken around me.

I learned Mandarin Chinese for a while but don't have much any more, and I can only draw about half a dozen characters. For some reason, I memorized one of my plastic card's PIN numbers in Chinese and it's one I use only occasionally, on holiday, so you find me apparently singing in front of ATMs as I try and remember what the numbers translate to.

I learned Egyptian hieroglyphs for a time to, just for the sheer fun of it, and it was. One year I went to a museum in Germany and I could read a sarcophagus!

Trying to decide now whether to go on with the Spanish - estudiar espanol es muy interesante! - probably just for the fun of it: I'm not a great hot weather lover, I'm going to Spain to attend the opera, and not sure whether I'll go back. We'll see.

(The only problem with the Spanish course I'm using, which is absolutely excellent, is that it's designed for Americans meeting Spanish speakers in their daily life, not for Spanish Spanish, so I stand the chance of going to Spain with a Spanish American accent! !Que rollo!)

[Dolly]

The last time I spoke German was when I met a man who used to be an SS officer in WWII. He very kindly let me practice my German on him. Last week I met a couple from Sweden. The only times I speak Italinan is to my cat, Guccio. I love the rhythm to this language. Like most people I'm better at comprehending written foreign language than spoken.

My sister is self-taught in Spanish and French which came in handy when I ended up at a hosptial in Paris once.

What operas are you seeing? Are you a trained singer or musician?

I would love to vist Russia and Spain. I have a friend who just returned from Russia and it sounds fascinating. I've only traveled abroad once but if things improve financially for my family and as a reward for my weight loss I'm going back.

[silverbelle]

My husband is a native Spanish speaker and beyond the 3 years I took in high school, I don't know too much. I would like to learn but it is harder than you think, living with a native speaker, he never speaks it! Unless he is around his family. I need to break down and by Rosetta Stone.

[Lori123321]

I was stationed in Spain for 4 years and learned a little of the language. Then when I went to nursing school I had to take foreign language classes so I chose Spanish. My accent was good but I found out how bad I had mutilated the language while I was there. I have spanish only speaking patients a lot so I can ask them a few things. If I go beyond yes/no questions though, I am doomed!
My youngest was born in Spain and had a Spanish babysitter. She spoke only a few words of English. So during his 18 month well baby check, I told the doctor that while he was making a lot of sounds, he wasn't talking. He would get mad when I couldn't understand what he wanted so I know he was trying to tell me something. I was worried about his hearing since he had multiple infections. The doctor started talking to him and then switched to Spanish. My son had an extensive vocabulary, just in Spanish and spoke almost no English until he was 3! Baby babble is hard enough without it being in a language you don't speak! He is now 14 and doesn't remember but took Spanish in school and excelled. Just doesn't use it enough to keep it fresh.

[Dolly]

Anyone ever been diagnosed with an eating disorder?

Believe it or not, I was anorexic in my late teens and early twenties. I was hospitalized for a week over it. Not a happy time in my life.