[Overpaid Slacker]

Rick -
I've studied German (years ago), Russian (a few years ago) and Greek (ancient... but it's not soooo different, and the alphabet is half the battle, as with Russian). So I've got something of a foundation to build upon.

Thing is (for me) German is excruciatingly precise... and I've found I don't learn well by memorizing rules. Russian is bizzare and Greek is inflected, so I'll learn them best by just doing.

Italian is b/c I mentioned to my mom that I was looking for these courses and she said "I've always wanted to learn Italian. Get that one too so we can learn it together." Can't say no to mom. (note: not to be confused with "mother", tabs' bete noir).

Story: Getting on a train in Venice to ride down to Florence. Two (d-bag) guys are in our -- assigned -- seats. So I say, nice and smiling, excuse me you're in our seats, holding the tickets out so they could see them, without thrusting them into their faces. These guys look at each other and say something in Italian, rolling their eyes.

I say, smile frozen on my face: "is there a f*cking problem, or are you moving." I'm 6'5" and 275 and looking through the guy's head I'm addressing. He asks, in Italian if I speak Italian. I say "no". He asks in French if I speak French. I say "no." He rolls his eyes, makes a Pffft sound and smirks at his buddy.

I say, in Russian "do you speak Russian"? He stares at me. I say, in Dutch "do you speak Dutch"? He's not smiling any more. "Hmm. Afrikaans?" He's getting the point. I ask, "Do you speak Japanese", in Japanese (OK, this was pushing it... other than that phrase, I knew only enough Japanese to order beer and get laid). Now he's turning red. "Deutsch? Nein?" I turn to his buddy: "You speak Sotho?" In Sotho. "So, none of those huh? Pffffffffffffffft." Rolling my eyes. "And not English either, apparently. Genius, move right now or I will move you. You understand that?" He got the point.

More importantly, it's too common for non-native English speakers to feel insulted that we have not learned their language. But how to choose? There are great arguments for learning German. Same for French. And Italian. Here, Spanish certainly has its merits. Russian is a great and marketable language for certain purposes. But what about Ukranian, or Hungarian, or Flemish, etc.? There are too many options for us, but only one real primary option for non-native speakers -- learn English. Their choice is easy. But many get bent b/c, of the hundreds of languages I could learn, and the few that I have, I haven't learned theirs.

JP