[condor27596]

I've always had a penchant to be a linguist. I always wanted to reach out and be able to communicate with other people.

I failed Spanish in highschool big time. I did ok but not great in German as a hobby. I actually did pretty good for 3 semesters of Russisn later in life.

Russisn is my preferred second language although I've not worked on it in years.

My new neighbors and good friends are refuges from Iraq. It's unlikely I make a move to learn Arabic. But it's because I'm tired not because of them.

If you consider mathematics a foreign language and I do. I was a very poor pupil for 20 years. Then I discovered the secret and completed 30 plus credit hours of math and statistics at the university level.

[Nakedgun]

I passed my 7th grade Spanish semester with a D-minus. Glad that was over with.

[SpecialK]

Despite living 2 hours from Mexico, I had 4 years of French in highschool.

What happened to Esperanto?

[MadMathMind]

I was fluent in Latin at one point in my life. I am proficient in Japanese as well, although I need to review a bit to kick some dust off.

I attempted to learn Mandarin. The course I took was not very good and did not have enough practice speaking in class. I was meeting with a friend (native speaker) to practice once a week, but I felt like I was monopolizing her time a bit too much. And I still sucked. :/ I can read a decent amount, to the point where I can understand simple sentences and communicate simple ideas with my parents-in-law, but that's about it. I want to try again. I can detect the tones when my wife tells me a word at much higher accuracy than I used to be able to, so it seems at some unconscious level, something is sinking in.

I think I'm pretty adept with languages, especially for a scientist. Some of what you see written by scientists is fairly horrifying. And I'm not talking about stuff non-native speakers write--in some ways, they write better than people who speak only English!

What happened to Esperanto?

It was superseded by English. One of Esperanto's primary failures was that it was only easy for native speakers of European languages to learn. For speakers of Asian languages, it was no easier than learning English or French. That kinda made it fail as a global language, since it's better to learn a natural language than a constructed one if both are the same difficulty for you.

Plus, almost all technical science terms are created in English. That was another big strike. Esperanto lacks a large body of technical words, and as it turns out, most people really aren't interested in learning a new language to talk about family, friends, and the weather. They do it for business and because they need to.

The premise of the language was interesting but it can't really work. Once people start using a language, it will become corrupted as a natural process. Esperanto can only maintain its "purity" and lack of exceptions, inconsistencies, etc. when few people are using it. Because language is ultimately expressive and different people express themselves through words in different ways, every language user will customize use of language for his own purposes. And then it's just a matter of time before it gains all of the complexities of natural language.

[csa]

I took two years of Spanish in high school, got straight A's, and now remember little of it!

[boriscleto]

Me fail English? That's unpossible.

[csa]

I think now, that I would fail any language course, including English!

[photolady95]

I passed my college course in Spanish before having any background in that language, but though I can read it, I can't speak it or write it.

[Tom S.]

Spanish, French, German and sign language. I didn't fail them, but never used them enough to remember any of them.

[kadajawi]

I am a linguist, though I am only fluent in English and German. Trying to learn Spanish now, but I am bad at learning languages.

[sterretje]

I love languages, but not practicing them makes it difficult to keep the level. Still fluent in Dutch and can survive in Germany and France. Dropped English as a subject in highschool; my God, I hated the language.

If you want to learn languages, move to South Africa; there are eleven official languages

[gaweidert]

I took one year of Spanish and two years on German in high school but that was a long time ago. In America you do not need to know several languages to get around so most of what I learned was lost simply because I never used it. I have been to German three times and I did brush up a bit before I went. I spent two weeks in South Korea in the early 90's. I picke up a Berlitz phrase book and took it around with. I am a firm believer that if you go to a country that used a different language you should at least learn to say hello, please and thank you. I have found that it works wonders.

In Boonville, California the adults speak a language called Boont. Kids are not taught it and it allows the adults to speak in front of them without the kids knowing what they are saying, I remember growning up in the 50's and my parents developed a "language" between them that we had a hard time understanding. It was only used when they didn't want young impressionable ears listening.

[Artesian]

I took German and did very well in it but I failed Golf. Go figure.
Steve

[sterretje]

I am a firm believer that if you go to a country that used a different language you should at least learn to say hello, please and thank you. I have found that it works wonders.

It indeed often does.

Problem is that the people immediately think that you speak the language and start a high speed conversation. When I was a kid, our family often went to France for the yearly holiday. After my dad said "hello" and asked e.g. for directions, he always had to slow them down with the phrase "Voulez vous parler lentement, s'il vous plait".

[p38arover]

I did a one year crash course in French at high school because a pass in a foreign language was required to matriculate and go into university. I remember little of that.

There was little need to know another language in Australia back in the Sixties as we are an island, we have no neighbouring countries and most of us never thought we'd go overseas, it was simply too expensive. Not so now.

We have only one official language - English..