I'm pondering this as I sit here with
Livemocha, picking up my online Italian lessons where I left off.
I shouldn't say I spoke NO Italian on vacation - I could figure out enough to order in restaurants and compliment the chef :P And I get the whole philosophy behind "immersion learning" - even though I kept fumbling my articles I was genuinely surprised at how I got used to hearing Italian and being able to sift some words out of the babble - this was the first time I had an extended stay anywhere that wasn't predominantly English-speaking so that was new for me. Even so, the helplessness of not being able to do simple things was frustrating - really hits home when you can't even call a cab!
I've joked in the past that I took French in high school, Italian and college and now speak English... poorly, but it's not exactly a joke. I'm aware monolingualism is usual for an American but it still bugs me that I squandered what little opportunity I had to learn other languages. It's only been in the past couple of years that I've realized that learning takes
work (gee, who knew? :P) and I can sit around wishing or I can actually do something.
To that end, I'm continuing with Italian - I figure one romance language opens the door to the others. Livemocha's lessons take about 10 minutes; I can devote 20-30 minutes a week to this.
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