My amazing brother Daniel who is an Eagle Scout once went to a World Jamboree in Chile. When he came back he said this:
If you know three languages you are trilingual, if you know two languages you are bilingual and if you know one language you are American.
And I find this to be absolutely true as well, which is unfortunate. That is why I now find myself in Madrid, Spain.
About a year and a half ago, I spent 5 months in Seville, Spain where I FINALLY learned Spanish. The 13 previous years of bad Spanish teachers had been of little help. But I was thrilled because when I left, I was fluent. I was even dreaming in Spanish which is very weird to do! And that brings me to a familiar saying:
If you don’t use it, you lose it.
And with Spanish this is very true. A year and a half later and I am no longer fluent. So for the next 6 weeks I will be in Spain brushing up on the language. I hope to come home fluent again and I will do my best to remain fluent.
