I have always loved languages, and that love was fostered in me since an early age. My mother started teaching me English when I was 9, sent me alone to Spain for 6 months when I was 11 and to France for a year when I was 14, the result being that I learned Spanish and French very well, with a good accent - something I still value very highly. At 13 I started doing German in school, and after two years of studies I can talk it, but not terribly well. Then I was basically busy with those languages for the next 10 years, after a brief flirt with Arabic ( of which I remember nothing) and then at the age of 27 I decided to learn Italian. I figured that knowing French and Spanish, Italian could not be that hard. And it was not. After 3000 pages of reading Italian, three weeks in Italy and three Italian boyfriends, my Italian was good enough to impress Italians for the next couple of decades. Unfortunately I never get to use it, so it is now in serious need of life support. I then had to learn some Latin (hated every minute of it) had a brief flirt with Dutch, and a somewhat more serious flirt with Polish, before I got busy raising kids and caring for a bed ridden mother for the next decade, something which put a stop to my studies. A few years ago I started learning Russian, which is the hardest thing I have ever done. Being a dyslectic, reading Russian feels like torture, and writing it is beyond agony. If I could at least boast that I can speak it well I would be happy, but I find even that hard. I'll get there sometime, though To give you an impression of where I am linguistically now, I enclose a link to an interview with the famous polyglot Richard Simcott. Any comments are welcome
Fantastic video, and what beautiful roses... I found it interesting when you were speaking Italian and Spanish, it seemed to me that both of you also started using your hands more and your Spanish accent is very lovely.
Thank you. I am always up for compliments for my roses Yes, I tend to gesticulate a lot when I speak Mediterranean languages. It sort of goes with the territory. And thank you also for the comment on my Spanish accent. It is definitely the one I feel most confident about I have had some amazing feed back also for my French accent, but was told that my Italian accent stunk. I couldn't help laughing at that one, and the comment left by one who said: "She is stunning for an old lady..."
Awesome video and roses ! And because you are a member of this forum, this will not be a boring forum.
