Well, the only languages I'm very familiar with are English, Spanish, and Thai (I never did speak Thai that well) and unfamiliar with German. Maybe it was because I was in middle school when I learned Spanish, but the gender-specific verbs weren't that much of a difficulty for me. Far harder was remembering "crap, what's the word for 'basement'?"
I took that class out of curiosity, because I'd pick up Spanish language radio on the AM radio from Mexico (AM skips like short wave) and wondered what they were saying. It turned out to be very useful when I lived in California and especially Florida; you actually had to know Spanish to shop at the convenience store by my apartment, and half the foreign tourists I dealt with at work spoke only Spanish.
It's been so long since I've used it, I have to admit that I don't remember if they made any sense, so I don't know.
Thai was a bitch to learn, I was 21 by then. Learned from a book and the help of the Thais themselves; I was in the USAF and that's where they sent me. Knowing the language saved my life once!
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday October 03 2014, @06:10PM
Well, the only languages I'm very familiar with are English, Spanish, and Thai (I never did speak Thai that well) and unfamiliar with German. Maybe it was because I was in middle school when I learned Spanish, but the gender-specific verbs weren't that much of a difficulty for me. Far harder was remembering "crap, what's the word for 'basement'?"
I took that class out of curiosity, because I'd pick up Spanish language radio on the AM radio from Mexico (AM skips like short wave) and wondered what they were saying. It turned out to be very useful when I lived in California and especially Florida; you actually had to know Spanish to shop at the convenience store by my apartment, and half the foreign tourists I dealt with at work spoke only Spanish.
It's been so long since I've used it, I have to admit that I don't remember if they made any sense, so I don't know.
Thai was a bitch to learn, I was 21 by then. Learned from a book and the help of the Thais themselves; I was in the USAF and that's where they sent me. Knowing the language saved my life once!
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org