Re: "Useful languages"

My own experience with language learning could be stated in a comparison of how
I learned (and in one case forgot) the two languages I've studied the most in my
post-high school years.

In 1998, I was engaged to someone from Iran, and I wanted to impress the
would-be inlaws (but she herself spoke very little Farsi, guess she got
"assimilated"). So I bought a book and taught myself Farsi. I spoke it fairly
well for a while; I read and wrote it even better. But I never used the language
in actual conversation, nor did I hear it on a regular basis. Eventually I
forgot 90% or more of what I learned.

On the other hand, I've never really seriously studied Spanish in terms of
reading books, doing repetitive exercises, memorizing verb conjugation tables,
that sort. But living in Texas and hearing Spanish in everyday use has ingrained
in my brain that part of language many of us HATE to study -- vocabulary. I can
talk B.S. with people in Spanish, everyday kind of stuff. But don't ask me to do
it in Farsi.

Not until I re-learn the language, since I do like Iranian languages quite a
lot. But I'd really like to learn Armenian, just for the aesthetics.

~Danny~


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