I’m just taking a brake here from self studying of Portugese, and thinking… WHY THE HELL haven’t I get around that one as a kid… was quicker and by now I could actually work in that language. I speak German/English fluently, have some knowledge of Russian but it was all done in school years. And now, I have to listen to freakin Pimsleur lessons while driving to work… darn.

Anyone else had/has same thing going?

I hated languages at school but being a massive movie fan, I really wanted to watch Hayao Miyazaki’s catalogue in the original language as a hell of a lot is lost in translation. So I took a beginners class in Japanese, I found it really hard. Not only is there a new language but also new letters to learn, two (kind of) alphabets and literally 10’s of thousands of words that each have a unique symbol.

I don’t regret it for a second though. I am still a total noob but I can introduce myself verbally and in writing as well, which is a good feeling. All the classes around me are soooo expensive though so it’s really slow going.

I tend to have picked up bits of a few from travelling/working abroad. They come back to me when returning to those countries or regions that use those languages. Never really sat down and forced myself to learn one fully.

Like Gary, I’ve picked bits and pieces up over the years.  After watching several series’ of Taggart I can just about understand Glaswegian.

After reading some of R-Boris’ threads I have developed an understanding of “Bollocks”