Kaskazi wrote:
Thank you Pat. Languages were always one of my weakest points and that was/is one of my greatest regrets. I can understand most French (if spoken very deliberately), but not speak or write it. I have mostly forgotten my poor Kiswahili for want of use. But my English is pretty good, and I credit years of otherwise unproductive Latin instruction for that!
My favourite Mark Twain - "If the Romans had to learn Latin, they'd have had no time for anything else!"
I used to be able to read, write, and converse in French and have lost most of it. Its the same with Spanish. I learned enough Russian to just get me in trouble; difficult to comprehend the spoken work unless singular nouns or verbs. Now, all 3 get tangled up if I try to speak one of them! Like you, Latin was an excellent foundation for English, medical terms, and both French and Spanish - I took Latin l, ll, IV in HS (was able to skip III) I have always loved language but had to spend hours in language lab listening to lessons repeatedly as my auditory discrimination was so poor. OOPS SORRY FOLKS, likely not of interest to anyone but Ron and me.