Sadly, my language skills have deteriorated. There was a time when I would have considered myself nearly fluent in Spanish, but a lack of use has caused my knowledge to erode into the "reasonably competent" category. Same with Japanese -- I used to know more than a smattering, having taken it for two years in college, but I've regressed to only a very basic vocabulary and I remember very few of the characters I'd once memorized.
My knowledge of French and Italian is derived entirely from all those years of studying Spanish. I cannot wrap my mouth around French to save my life, but I can read it reasonably well and can understand speakers if they use basic sentences (this knowledge was gleaned when I spent a week in Paris by myself ;-)). Ditto Italian, though I find pronunciation much easier.
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Date: 2005-10-18 03:05 pm (UTC)My knowledge of French and Italian is derived entirely from all those years of studying Spanish. I cannot wrap my mouth around French to save my life, but I can read it reasonably well and can understand speakers if they use basic sentences (this knowledge was gleaned when I spent a week in Paris by myself ;-)). Ditto Italian, though I find pronunciation much easier.