Upon the date 12:18 PM 3/8/00 +0001, Hans Franke said something like:
>> It hasn't helped me. I took 5 years of college German and speak less than
>> the average German 2 year old. Honestly, it's humiliating, because I'm
>> still in the habit of telling people that I know some German...only to
>> stumble on the most basic words and sentence structure. I think it would
>> come back pretty quick, but I don't have the time (or energy) to study it
>> on my own, and very little opportunity to use it in a practical setting
>> (despite Hans' brave attempt to try to understand my gibberish).
>
>That's part of the deal - if you pretend to understand
>my English, I'll do the same about your German... :))
>
>No, serious, German isn't that hard to learn, millions
>of kids over here are proof that it's easy enough to
>be done even at toddlers age :))
>
>Well, Now realy serious: All you missing is some practice
>so come over for VCFe and help Sallam in his speech.
Yes, yes! Practice by being there! I improved myself so very much each time
I visited by being _within_ the language than just by reading, writing,
listening to some tapes, etc. You others who have traveled to lands which
speak a language you've learned would probably agree. I picked up a lot of
the Bavarian language (which is not really formally taught I understand nor
are there more than the one book I found on it) by being over there. Don't
ask me to write some of the words I recall as I haven't ever seen them in
_print_!
That previous message mentioning how English skills by young Americans are
terrible is somewhat embarassing to me I think. But it's true dang it. If
Bev and I can get my 7-yr-old stepson to be better than what seems to be
the average around here, I'll be very happy.
Regards, Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA cfandt_at_netsync.net
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL:
http://www.antiquewireless.org/
Received on Wed Mar 08 2000 - 21:20:26 GMT