Learning new languages
Still trying to teach myself Spanish. It is a useful language to know some of here in Connecticut (and probably everywhere else in the country), where many of the patients who come in to the emergency room don't speak English, and may not come with someone who is bilingual. There is a phone in the ER for getting in touch with a medical interpreter in different languages like Spanish, French, Russian, etc. The one time I used it, it took an entire hour to get a full history from the patient, and then the majority of it turned out to be incorrect anyway.
I have been told that if you know French, Spanish should be easier to learn, since they are all related. But, for whatever reason, I am horrible at learning new languages. I took 10 years of French, from 3rd grade up to 12th, but never really mastered it to the level of fluency. It probably did not help that our teachers spoke French with an American southern accent... My sister went to France when she was in 6th grade, on a foreign exchange program. The French student we hosted spoke English beautifully, making me feel like the biggest idiot. Immersion really helped my sister; she speaks French better than I, and with fewer years of study. She also knows some Chinese. Go figure.
Oddly enough, the language I did enjoy was Latin. My Latin classes in high school were so enjoyable that I decided to continue in college for language credits. The strangest coincidence was that there were three Nadias in my Latin class of 6 students--I had never met another Nadia before in my entire life. Our professor wore sunglasses and jeans, and had a distinctly Boston accent. We had a blast.
I also tried learning american sign language, just because it looked neat. Sadly, I only got as far as the alphabet. I did get to use it once when I was working as an ophthalmologist's assistant, and there was a deaf girl being fitted for new glasses. She had to read the letters on the board, and I got to interpret. Scored some brownie points that day.
So I'm going along slowly with my Spanish tapes. Every word I put in knocks a previous one out. C'est dommage.
I have been told that if you know French, Spanish should be easier to learn, since they are all related. But, for whatever reason, I am horrible at learning new languages. I took 10 years of French, from 3rd grade up to 12th, but never really mastered it to the level of fluency. It probably did not help that our teachers spoke French with an American southern accent... My sister went to France when she was in 6th grade, on a foreign exchange program. The French student we hosted spoke English beautifully, making me feel like the biggest idiot. Immersion really helped my sister; she speaks French better than I, and with fewer years of study. She also knows some Chinese. Go figure.
Oddly enough, the language I did enjoy was Latin. My Latin classes in high school were so enjoyable that I decided to continue in college for language credits. The strangest coincidence was that there were three Nadias in my Latin class of 6 students--I had never met another Nadia before in my entire life. Our professor wore sunglasses and jeans, and had a distinctly Boston accent. We had a blast.
I also tried learning american sign language, just because it looked neat. Sadly, I only got as far as the alphabet. I did get to use it once when I was working as an ophthalmologist's assistant, and there was a deaf girl being fitted for new glasses. She had to read the letters on the board, and I got to interpret. Scored some brownie points that day.
So I'm going along slowly with my Spanish tapes. Every word I put in knocks a previous one out. C'est dommage.