Oh, dear, where do I start with this one? I've spoken English and Spanish since I was a wee lad because my ******'s tongue is Spanish, and my ******'s tongue is English.
When I was a *** my *** thought it would be a good ****** activity if we took an Italian for Families class at the local community college. I learned my first few words in Italian there, and picked up some more later on (being that it's a Romance language it's not too hard to pick up on one if you're fluent in another). In college I learned some more from having to learn many, many Italian musical terms, and from trying to figure out Italian opera librettos.
When I entered the sixth grade we were ****** to take French as part of the curriculum. I followed that for the next 15 or so years. While I can't speak fluent French, I can communicate in it fairly well, and I can understand about 90% of what native French speakers talk about.
When I was in middle school I had a lot of Japanese friends, and I would always get annoyed when they would start speaking Japanese amongst themselves because I couldn't understand what in the hell they were saying. My solution? I bought a do-it-yourself Japanese course, which coupled with my friends' coaching taught me enough to where I could carry on a conversation in Japanese. That language went out the window years ago, and I can hardly remember any of it.
Sometime in high school I was introduced to the band Ramms+ein. I quickly developed an affinity for their music, and soon found myself wondering what in the blue hell they were singing about. Bestrafe mich? Wollt Ihr das Bett in Flammen sehen? Seeman? I just had to know what those titles, and such lyrics as, "Zwischen deine langen Beine sucht den Schnee vom letzten Jahr/Doch est ist kein Schnee mehr da!" meant, so I found a do-it-yourself German course, which coupled with a dictionary allowed me to understand what they were talking about. I've tried to continue studying it on my own, but I still have problems with it. I understand a good 60% of what people are saying, but nothing coherent comes out of my mouth if I try to speak it. Even so, when I worked for Ramms+ein 2 months ago I was able to understand a lot of what their crew was saying.
In college I picked up some Latin informally, again, from the study of texts commonly used in music. At one point or another I could recite the Ordinary of the Mass in Latin. Although I've never officially studied it, learning Latin texts coupled with speaking a few Romance languages has allowed me the ability to understand some Latin phrases and writing.
Somewhere along the way I picked up a little Portuguese, most likely from Brazilian friends and classmates. I can't speak it well, but I can understand what people are saying.
So, yeah. :shy:
