Past Gymnastics Message Board Memories

[KristyJ]

Back in the 00s, it wasn't nearly so long since I'd done not particularly high level French and Spanish at school, and before reliable translation software. Sometimes I used to read news articles online and see how much I could make out of them, or the language forums on GW. Lost the habit, unfortunately, and then internet translation did the rest. And it's true what they say about use it or lose it!

I took six years of Spanish and a year of Latin in school, but it's been so long since I've used it conversationally that I'm a little stilted trying to speak it now. I can still read Spanish, and interestingly I can read a lot of Italian since it's adjacent. I've learned snippets of other languages and surprised myself by being able to decipher parts of the Romanian articles lately. I still Google translate anything I'm not confident in, though, to be safe.

 

[JaJa]

I was fluent in French until I started studying Spanish. Then got both languages mixed up and now speak neither.

 

[IratePanda]

I used to be fluent in Mandarin. Now it's serviceable, if rusty. I also understand French and Spanish quite well, but I'm hesitant to use either in conversation. I've dabbled in Khmer (Cambodian) and picked up enough to follow soap operas and old pop songs. I attempted to learn Japanese in grad school, but it kicked my ass.