[Rick Lee]

I've got German down to a near-native level. But Mandarin is slow-going. I started it in Fairfax Co. adult ed. classes a few years ago. When I got to the third level, they kept calling me and telling me they had to cancel the course because I was the only person who had signed up. Happened three times. The only other classes in the area were during the day when I was at work. Now I have a trip to China coming up soon, some of which will be guiding my folks around, and I'm pretty rusty. It's just a lot easier to function in Mandarin when I'm surrounded by it for every second of the day for weeks. All I get now is overhearing my wife on the phone with her mom. I can follow along some, but my speaking sucks.

I took intensive Russian for one semester in college before I went to the Ukraine and I actually did ok there. But I graduated before I got past the second level and never got back into it.