>>>Hi Dragan,
>>>Obviously I was wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy off on that one! Actually I took Russian in High School (can you tell it's been a LONG time since then? :0). After that I learned German and then Spanish and after each new language, I forgot the previous one. I do not have a nack for languages! In fact, about the only thing I remember in Russian is: ß íå ãîâîðþ ïîðóññêè. I used to be able to say: ß ãîâîðþ ïîðóññêè î÷åíü ìåäëåííî è íå õîðîøèé, but not anymore! (I don't think I got that right either! :0) I'll stick to English from now on just to make sure I don't type anything that may be misunderstood! :0)
>>
>>ß íå ãîâîðþ ïî-ðóññêè. ß ãîâîðþ ïî-ðóññêè, íî î÷åíü ìåäëåííî è ïëîõî.
>
>Nadya,
>
>I grew up in Switzerland. My second language was French. After that I lived in Italy for three years. My third language is Italian. I married a Colombian woman, so my fourth language is Spanish. After all that, I can barely speak English! I used to be able to swtich back and forth between languages, but now I get them all confused. Of course, all those languages don't include any of the programming ones...

Jim;

I grew up in San Francisco, and learned German and Spanish (Castellino). In the Air Force while attending electronics tech school, I had a friend who grew up in Germany and lived in Venezuela part of his childhood. We would go walking down the hall and he would say something to me in Spanish, English or German, and I would answer him in one of those three languages, but not the one he used. People would say to us, “What are you two talking about”? Then we would stop and laugh at what we had done. It was funny and we caught ourselves doing this all the time.

My wife is from Peru and her grandparents are from Zaragoza, Spain. She does not speak Spanish and will tell you so! She speaks Castellino! She has an Uncle from Catalonia (Catalon), and another Uncle from Andalusia (Anduluz) who speak very differently from the rest of the family.

When we were married my wife did not speak English. She told me to talk to her in only English. So her English improved and my Spanish did not. At least I can still understand and will never go hungry or thirsty. :)

My wifes family liked me from the begining as I have played flamenco guitar since I was very young. My wifes family is very involved with flamenco cante y balie. My wife sings and I play guitar. We are talking about doing a few Villancicos (Spanish flamenco Christmas Songs) this year.

It is amazing to hear a song like Silent Night and then hear a Villancico. The Villancico's are full of life and celebration! How different cultures interrupt the same event is amazing! Perhaps music like Silent Night is better sung at Easter, which should be a solemn time. :)

Ciao.

Tom