Natural gift skill you wish you had, that you have already

[emily_in_nc]

I took three years of French in high school, one year of Latin, then repeated French 1 in college (needed a "crip course" one semester).

Living in Belize, even though it's an English-speaking country on paper, there is a ton of Spanish spoken. My DH took German, so some good we both are!

We did a bunch of "Spanish 1" using the Pimsleur audio courses, similar to Rosetta Stone. We learned enough to get by on a 16-day trip to Mexico this December. We could check into a hotel, deal with money, buy bus tickets, order food in a restaurant, and have very, very basic conversations with vendors, etc. But certainly, once they started talking among themselves, we could only get a word here or there. I think if we lived in Mexico for a year, we'd become a bit more competent. But it's certainly more difficult learning a language in your 50s! That said, my grandparents and parents were excellent in languages, so I do pick them up fairly easily. And GLC, I remember more of that high school French than I ever could have predicted. Once I started studying Spanish, a lot of the French started coming back...I could remember the French words more easily than the new, foreign-feeling Spanish ones. Interesting how the brain works...a lot of stuff is tucked back in there that we don't even realize is still there, until it has a catalyst to bring it back to the forefront!

[malkin]

TE vs. Zombies!
I can hardly wait!

re: language learning
+1 for immersion; really you need lots and lots of comprehensible input.

re: "I suck at this"
I just wrote a paper reframing this attitude into what I call "Imperfect Mastery."

[Veronica]

TE vs. Zombies!
I can hardly wait!


re: "I suck at this"
I just wrote a paper reframing this attitude into what I call "Imperfect Mastery."

No, really I sucked at skeet. I couldn't even hit one on the ground.

Veronica

[Koronin]

I took 2 years of Spanish in high school and 1 year of French in college and can't speak either one. My husband spent time in Spain (Air Force, he was there for about a year during Desert Shield/Storm) and learned Spanish. At this point he can't speak it, but can understand fairly well. He also has tried to learn some German, and actually it's the same thing he can understand it ok but cannot speak it.

Veronica, sorry about your issues with skeet shooting. I've never tried it before. I have shot both a hand gun and shot gun at ranges, but not skeet. My preferred weapon is a bow and arrows. I'm a lot more comfortable and confident with those.

[salsabike]

I like this question, shootingstar.

My brain loves, loves, loves foreign languages. I've had 13 years of French, starting in 1st grade, three of Spanish, two of Japanese. The French comes back quickly and fairly fluently when I'm in a French-speaking place. The Spanish and Japanese worked for politesse, but not much conversation. But my head just loves the stuff, and if I could do anything I wanted, I would just go back to school and learn languages until my head was stuffed full.

And I wish I could draw. I'm horrible at it. I still draw exactly the way I did when I was a little kid, and my drawing stank then. It stinketh still.

[skhill]

The talk of learning languages has reminded me of my Grandma. She once said she was too stupid to learn a second language. The thing is, she was a native speaker of two and didn't realize it: English and ASL. Her mother was deaf, and really ASL was Grandma's first language. We don't always see the abilities we do have...

[GLC1968]

No, really I sucked at skeet. I couldn't even hit one on the ground.

Veronica

I just spit coffee!

I'm a good shot with most weapons...or at least I was before I got glasses. Now that my vision is corrected (it's been 'off' my whole life and I was compensating), I'm not sure how good I'll be. I hope to test it on archery in the near future.

I don't think zombies can swim, so if you stay near water, you'll have that going for you!

[Veronica]

I do wonder if I might be better at archery. I love Daryl and his bow on the Walking Dead. We haven't seen the latest episode yet. We like to get 2 or 3 episodes and do a marathon. I'm the same way about Justified and Breaking Bad. Tivo is my friend.

I think I just need practice, but it's another time consuming hobby.

Veronica

[GLC1968]

If you love Daryl, you won't love the latest episode! I would definitely put watching it off until you have the next two or three episodes saved up to watch so that you don't have to wait a bunch of time to find out what will happen.

[Veronica]

Yeah, the cliffhanger was not auspicious for Daryl. They are not shy about killing characters off.

Veronica