Yesterday I ran into the girl I used to refer to as “the girl who stole my boyfriend in high school,” but recently realized I should probably refer to as “the girl my boyfriend cheated on me with in high school,” not only because the first statement implies that men are faultless pawns in games played by women (like when people call Angelina Jolie a homewrecker, as if Brad Pitt didn’t wreck his own home), but also because the boyfriend in question saw her only briefly (evidently the relationship thrived under cheating conditions but not otherwise) and then was my boyfriend again, for reasons I can’t satisfactorily explain except to say that he was QUITE cute and QUITE charming aside from the cheating thing, and I DID dump him permanently after the second time he cheated with her (and again, their relationship fizzled out).
ANYWAY, I saw the girl my high school boyfriend cheated on me with, and she was wearing a Winnie-the-Pooh shirt. And it’s not that there is one single thing wrong with wearing a Winnie-the-Pooh shirt, but still, I had a flash of sympathy for her because that is not what I would want to be wearing on such an occasion, if I were her.
Speaking of high school, I would like to know what language you studied in school, and why did you choose it? I started with French because I thought French seemed ROMANTIC, and then after two years of that I switched to Latin because I thought it would help with my SATs. It turned out I liked Latin a lot better (it’s not a spoken language anymore, so no one can criticize your accent!), so I took three more semesters of it in college.
Hmm, I was going to try to come up with a fun acronym but it didn’t work. Maybe we could call her the Betch.
I took German in high school (four years and a year in college) because I thought my parents would let me go to Germany in my senior year with my class.
They didn’t. I was pissed. And then I obviously took one more year in college. Don’t know why I did that but I remember my professor in college was tall, thin, had bright red hair and John Lennon glasses.
I can’t even remember her name. Hmmm. Eh. Who care’s about high school anyway? It seems like so so long ago.
I took Latin and later Spanish. Latin did help me later in college when I took medical terminology classes.
I have tried to comment on this three times and each time something has happened and my comment has not gone through, so I’m just going to say that I took German for 5 years and that it was a complete waste of time because my school wouldn’t let me go on the exchange since it was far too hard to organize being in a wheelchair. I’ve also forgotten most of it and I graduated last november – schlect.
PS – this word verification thing just made me type “cooch” into the box. Not even kidding.
Latin would be very cool. It wasn’t offered at my school.
I took French because my family was going to do a short term mission trip to a French speaking African country. Then I was kind of trapped and I took 4 years plus 1 year of college.
Obviously, as a nurse, Spanish would be a bit more helpful language to know, so when we were dealing with infertility, I took 3 semesters of college Spanish for fun. I loved it! I want to take more eventually. To be actually FLUENT in another language is my goal and Spanish was very instinctual for me.
I took Spanish in high school. I would have liked to take French, but I had already taken a half a year of Spanish in middle school. It didn’t transfer, but I thought it would be easier to take a language that I had some familiarity with. I think maybe I could have opted to take German, but those were my only options. I wound up taking all four years, because two of the three universities in our state required it for acceptance.
Latin was the only language offered in my school but I didn’t take it. The teacher was a former almost priest/turned teacher.
The girl my boyfriend cheated on me with in high school is now a facebook friend. Our names were so close that we were often called by each other’s name…THAT just added salt to the wound.
Took spanish and some vocabulary words stuck. Always tell myself I’ll take more so that when we travel I can *cough* see if people are talking about me *cough* speak with others.
I took French, but Spanish would have helped me a lot more when I was waiting tables and the kitchen staff was cursing at/around me. Then again, maybe they don’t cover swear words in high school Spanish?
I took spanish through middle school, high school, and a couple of semesters in college. My accent was pretty good, but I was never really at the conversational level. Mostly because I was too shy to actually speak it in front of people. Needless to say, much of it is gone now, but I can still surprise myself every now and then with random vocab words and verb conjugation. And I roll a mean “rr” :-).
There is a woman I work with, and I like and admire her a lot. Her personality is fun and sarcastic, and that’s why I could NOT understand why she used to wear a shapeless purple corduroy jumper with the embroidered likeness of Winnie the Pooh on it. The jumper has since been retired, but it is seared in my memory as one of the oddest things I have ever seen worn in an office setting.
I’m a first time commenter and relatively new reader – just wanted to let you know I really enjoy your blog. I just added you to my blogroll so I can keep reading – hope that’s OK! :-)
I studied Spanish for 5 years. Two in middle school, three in high school, and tested out for college.
I wish I’d studied more, because I was pretty good and could have been fluent if I’d ever figured out how to conjugate my damned verbs.
If I have any say in the matter, my kids will learn Latin.
No, I think it’s safe to say there is something wrong with a grown woman wearing a Winne-the-Pooh shirt. I would absolutely love to see the girl my boyfriend cheated on me with wearing one. Absolutely.
I took two years of French because my middle school offered an “early” language program so I had already taken a year. Then I decided to try Latin because it impressed my dad and I thought it would be fun. It was.
I took two more years of French in college – even went to France – and I STILL remember more from that one year of Latin.
I took four whole years of Spanish and used to be quite fluent, but decades of disuse have left me barely able to follow along with Univision. When I got to college, I got interested in German, but never took the actual language class; instead I took two quarters of a German culture/history class. I have never regretted that, they were two of the most interesting college courses I ever took. And this is going to give away how old I am but whatever…one of the quarters that I was taking one of these classes is when the Berlin Wall fell, and that made it even more fascinating. Our very proper, very German teacher certainly had an interesting perspective on it.
Kristin H.- Oh, that reminds me of something funny my high school did: if you took the fourth year offered of a language (we only had to take two years for high school graduation) AND you got into the Honors level of it, the teachers would teach you all the swears AND let you use them judiciously. …It occurs to me this could have been a high school myth, because it seems like parents might have objected.
I took 3 years of French and then majored in it, in college.
Mostly useless as I haven’t used it since graduation, living closer to the non-French-speaking border of our nation. Except I will say that I can basically read Spanish and sometimes even understand it, what with the romantic roots and all.
I do wish I’d taken Latin, though.
My 5yo attended a French “camp” last week, taught by a friend of mine. It was cute and brought back a few happy memories, but I do rather hope he’ll take something more practical in high school.
Ha. We learned swears the last day of school in my French 3 class! I loved taking French. Anyway, Swistle, did you talk to the girl your boyf cheated on you with?! I have one of those girls too, but I seriously don’t think I could speak to her if I saw her. My inner highschooler (I’m 30 for goodness sake) couldn’t handle it even now.
I took 4 years of French (I thought it sounded romantic also!) in highschool (we only had the option of French or Spanish), the last 2 of which were college credit classes so I didn’t need to take any language classes in college. Because of these extra credits I was almost a semester ahead in college, so I “studied” in Southern France for a semester my junior year. Truthfully, not much studying happened that semester. Every weekend we travelled to a new city (and Italy, Spain and Switzerland) and the weather in Southern France is beautiful most of the time. After a few months of living with the language my comprehension was very good. My able to speak and be understood was not so good still, but it was better. The best way to learn a language is to HAVE to use it. I traveled back to France a few years ago for a visit and was surprised that my comprehension was still pretty good.
I took Spanish until my junior year when they ran out of levels for me. I can still read it okay but I have never been very good at understanding native speakers because they speak too quickly. As far as why I took it? I’m from Texas so Spanish was the best idea! But I think French was the only other option at my school and I knew I would never use that…
Megan- No, we pretended not to see each other! About 10 years ago I went into a flower shop to get a bouquet sent for Paul’s grandfather’s funeral (UNNECESSARY DETAILS ALERT) and she was WORKING there. Luckily there was another clerk and I ordered through her instead. We both pretended we didn’t know who the other one was. SUPER AWK.
I totally know what you mean about the homewrecker thing. There are two involved, right? And the girl is being kinda a jerk, but she’s not the one cheating, right? Also? Winnie the Pooh shirt. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!
I took Spanish in high school and in college I took some Italian because I thought it would help me learn to swear creatively. Oddly enough, the teacher didn’t teach us the curse words and I could have gotten pretty much the same result with the $6 “Colorful Italian” book I bought.
I took Spanish because I moved in the middle of 8th grade from a school district that started languages in high school to one where they started in 7th grade. I was already a year and a half behind and everyone thought Spanish was the easiest language and the best bet for me.
I took it all through high school, college and grad school so I guess it worked out.
Also, I dated a boy for the last two years of high school and we went to the same college and he broke up with me during orientation. Very shortly thereafter he started dating another young woman from our high school (also at our college). I’m facebook friends with her now, but I’d never friend him.
Oh and I didn’t say this before because you said high school but I went on to study Latin and Portuguese in college and grad school. I chose them because I already knew Spanish and they were related. I was studying Comp Lit and needed to be able to read in several languages.
I took Spanish b/c it was the only thing offered. I still wish they had had French.
I took four years of French in High School. And the last year in High School was very different…very small class, lots of cultural discussions, food days, special dinner at the teacher’s house, etc. There wasn’t cursing per se but she would pretty much answer any question we had.
I signed up for a semester in college but the first day the prof announced it was the only day she would speak to us in English and I freaked since it had been a semester and a summer since I had even had French and I was taking 15 other credit hours. I WISH I had just struggled through it because if I had passed with a B or better (or something to that effect), I would have gotten “bonus” hours of credit since I had so much in High School, which means I probably could have at least minored in French and not that it would do jack for me now but it would have been cool. Even now, I want to take a refresher, probably with the unrealistic thought that maybe someday I will get to France and be able to have it click.
Latin would be so cool. Our small school only offered French or Spanish. Spanish would have been much more practical but my sister took French and so at least we had fun speaking French in front of our step mom, who would think we were talking about her when we were really only saying something like “could you put this away for me?” It was fun.
I took Spanish because I thought of all the languages it would be the most useful to me later in life. Because I am nothing if not boring and predictable. However had I been allowed to take Latin I would have, but only certain people got to take Latin, and I guess they thought I was too stupid, so I wasn’t one of the chosen few. I think I would have done well, I have always paid attention to word origins and similarities, and it has always interested me. Oh well. Spanish class was fun, I loved all of my Spanish teachers and have fond memories, and I remember a few phrases so when my puerto rican friend starts talking spanish mid-email I can sorta get wh at she is saying without Google translator and this is like the highlight of my day! ha. Plus, she curses at me in Spanish and that almost makes up for not being able to learn those words in school.
I took Spanish but I wish I had taken Latin. I took Spanish all through college, too, with the idea that it’s the second most spoken language in the US and I should know it? I don’t use it for anything except, like, Dora and Sesame Street Spanish at this point.
I took Japanese in high school. Only 2 years, but I so wish I had taken more. Then I couldn’t take it in college because I had about NO free classes if I planned on graduating in 4 years. So I can converse with a 2 year old in Japanese, maybe. :)
I took Latin in high school, after three summers taking German (after sixth, seventh and eighth grades). I found Latin to be easier in a lot of ways. Also, I took it because my grandfather was a Latin teacher. I took German because my other grandparents spoke it most of the time (and still do!).
I sometimes google the girl who my first real high school boyfriend cheated on me with. I can’t decide yet if I win or not.
Oh, I went back and read the comments and saw that you guys ignored each other. Which is exactly what I would have done too.
Sounds like you both handled it the most civilized way possible.
I took French. I can’t think why, except maybe because my dad and brother had both taken Spanish and just wanted to be different. I never had an ear for it, and my accent is horrible. When I went to Paris a few years ago, I found a tiny bit of remembered vocabulary helpful but I could not remember any grammar.
My mother made me take French because *she* thought it was romantic. Turns out I was rather good at languages, and I still speak it pretty well. I am WICKED BITTER that I didn’t take Spanish instead because if I was as good at Spanish as I am at French it would help me in my jobs, my life, etc etc. (I have learned a fair bit of Spanish by necessity but my grammar is laughably bad.) So, in a fun full circle of mother-forcing, I fully plan to force my hypothetical future children to take Spanish.
I took Latin for 4 years and Spanish for 3. Same thing with Latin, thought it would help my SATs, but I dug all the mythology and cultural stuff.
I submit that there IS something wrong with wearing a Winnie the Pooh shirt.
I took 6 years of Spanish. Ay de mi.
I took French through Middle School high school and college. I also took German and Italian in college but retained none of it–they were basically pronounciation courses required for my music major.
Somewhat related, I found out that a good friend of mine hooked up with my (pre-hub) high school boyfriend the summer after we had broken up. I found this out a few years ago, like 10 years after the fact, but I was beyond pissed. Still am. We’ve had casual conversations, but I haven’t seen her since she told me. I don’t think I could look at her.
Everyone beat me to it, but yes, THERE IS SO SOMETHING WRONG WITH A WINNIE THE POOH SHIRT. You win, if for no other reason than you were presumably NOT wearing a Winnie the Pooh shirt.
The Winnie the Pool shirt kind of makes me sad, too.
I took French because I felt like it was “the language of ballet” (NERD ALERT). However, the French teacher at our school thought that France was shaped like a boot (I AM NOT KIDDING) and that filet mignon was a type of fish. She was a grade-A idiot and neither spoke nor understood a single word of actual French. In fact, some exchange students came from France and sat in on her class and when they spoke en francais, she pretended that SHE COULD NOT HEAR THEM.
Ahhhh, Georgia public schools. Quality!
Our only choices were Spanish and German, I think. I took Spanish, obviously, since I can’t even remember the second choice. Three years’ worth of Spanish classes and I can’t speak a word. Well, I can speak a handful of words, but it really does me no good in the grand scheme of life.
I took Spanish in high school (our only choices were Spanish or French). I always regretted not taking French, because of the romance factor. But then I went to college and took two more years of Spanish there. Which amounted to a lot of years studying Spanish altogether, but how much can I remember now???
French, 4 years in high school, none in college. I went to Paris once and was terrified to even try to say bonjour for fear of sounding like an imposter.
I love Pooh, I really do, and I used to have many Pooh clothing items. Not anymore though. Now I have more Mickey stuff from trips to WDW. Am I lame or what?
I lived in a super small town, and my only language option for years was German, of which I retained NOTHING. Then during my senior year, they finally offered Spanish, but only through TV, where we were hooked up with two other schools and our teacher was conferenced in via another location. Also, I had German class first, immediately followed by Spanish, and it was HARD to get into the proper train of thought because of that.
In high school I had “the boy my boyfriend cheated on me with” and “the boy that liked the boy that my boyfriend cheated on me with” and on and on, I was a gay-maker, essentially.
I took spanish for a year, french for two, and then ASL in high school and college, and I LOOOOOVED ASL. The culture and history part was so interesting to me, and the language itself is so much more expressive than hearing people know, and much more efficient than spoken language. ASL is derived from FSL (french sign language) so many times in my head I would think in french while signing. It all got very confusing.
It’s funny though, a lot of the deaf people I know didn’t learn to write in english, so they sound funny in writing because of all the skipped inferred words and jumbled sentence structure in ASL, like instead of saying, “Do you want to go to the store with me?” they say “I go store you?” which is so awesome.
I’d recommend ASL to everyone, teaching your babies, being able to “talk” to someone from across a store, secret language around people that don’t know it, it’s great.
i went to a grammar school where everyone took french AND german, so i was surprised when i got to highschool and i had to PICK only one of them. i went with french, did a semester abroad my junior year, went on to continue french in college, spend a year in france there, and major in it. and just got a french-nerd tattoo a few months ago. so, uh, yeah! french!
i call the girl my ex cheated with me on “whoreface,” and i hate her with gusto. however, i hate HIM even MORE for cheating in the first place, so i think i have placed blame and hatred appropriately here :-)
Spanish. I lived in Texas, so that’s what you took. Because obviously.
As if two years of Spanish in 8th and 9th grade would help me, beyond giving me the ability to properly pronounce the words “chipotle” and “pollo” when ordering Tex-Mex.
There is not ONE single thing wrong with a Winnie the Pooh shirt on a grown woman. There are many, many things wrong with that.
I took German from 7th grade on and loved it. I also took Latin for the same reason Swistle did. It did help a lot. I took German also in College (only one semester) to get my BA. I took Greek and French (one semester of both), liked Greek (Biblical) but not French because of the accent and instructor. I took one year of Russian for fun (it was) and now I’m taking Spanish. But the weird thing is that my German will come to me at the oddest times even though it’s been like 30 years since I studied it. I find myself answering in German or counting and it annoys my Spanish prof. Ugh.
I took Spanish because I had heard (in high school) that by some random date (perhaps 2010? 2020?) one third of the United States would be Spanish speakers. I have no freaking clue if this is even remotely true. Don’t quote me.
My thoughts were, “Well gee. I had best learn to communicate with all these people!” And “This will give me a competitive edge in the job market!”
Weird thoughts for a 9th grader, yah?
I took French from 7th grade on, Spanish from 9th grade on, and German from 10th grade on. I love languages. I wanted to be an interpreter at the UN. I’m an office manager in an engineering office. Surely that’s close?
You always feel a little superior when you run into someone like that and they just look sad (really a WTP shirt?). I took French. Blech.
I took Spanish in junior high and high school because it was easy (ish) and useful. Now I’m 5 weeks (!) away from graduating and I chose American Sign Language for my language in college. The gap between my high school Spanish and finishing my college degree was just too big and I needed something that didn’t meet every day.
I recently saw a girl that stole my boyfriend (I say stole because she agreed to sleep with him if he dumped me, just because she hated me so much. I was holding on to my V card for dear life and he was a horny teenager, which doesn’t absolve him from blame, I realize) and she had gotten extraordinarily fat and had a child out of wedlock. These are very petty things to pick on but she had been so horrid to me that I couldn’t help feeling like I might be winning the Life game ten years out.
Anyway, I chose French in high school (and college) because my father is from France and I wanted to be able to speak to my grandmother in her native tongue. Which I was able to do only if we used the present tense for everything so as to avoid having to conjugate verbs.
I took French, in part because my school only offered French and Spanish and the Spanish teacher was known to suck and also we seemed to hire a new one every year, while the French teacher was great and had been there for decades. And also because my sister had taken Spanish and I wanted to be different.
Heh. This is one big advantage to not living in the same geographic region in which I grew up. Less awk all around.
Like you, I chose my high school language for its romantic/mystical promise–only what I chose was Latin. Then I found out that the Romans’ big contributions to the world were plumbing and concrete, and my romantic hopes were dashed (learning about the daily life of Flavia and Cornelia, two of the least-romantically-named ladies on the planet, did not help, although it did help my Latin). I think what I really wanted to learn was Gaelic, or maybe ancient Celtic runes.
Then I switched to French, and while it wasn’t Druidic runery, it did have the advantage of having lots of extra letters and fanciful spelling, so satisfied part of my romantic urge.
HA! I want to catch my Other Woman in a Poo Bear T-shirt. Or maybe just a shirt covered in poo. Real poo.
But she didn’t go after my high school boyfriend. She went after my husband.
In grade school I studied Spanish because I grew up in a California farm town and that was the practical thing to do. Nobody speaks French or German but Spanish is a real-honest-to-goodness survival skill.
In college I majored in Linguistics which involved language study which involved Italian and Russian. And then I went back to studying Spanish sorta casually when I was teaching ESL and that was primary language group for my students.
And! I went to Spain while I was studying Italian and Italy while I was studying Spanish and South Africa while I was studying Russia. So my language skills have only ever made me CONFUSED, in travel scenarios.
When I went to Chile I was actually studying Spanish, but I was accidentally newly pregnant, so I was still confused, but for different reasons.
And I’m sorry, but there IS IN FACT a single thing wrong with wearing a Winnie The Pooh Shirt in adulthood.
Latin, because it was *easy* and I thought it would help to know word origins and b/c I was already studying German outside of school.
Oh, I forgot to add that at one point during highschool the Spanish teacher was also teaching us French and I think she had trouble separating the 2 as she would come into class speaking Spanish every once in a while. Then, when we all stared at her blankly she would switch to French. It must have been confusing for her.
I took French, because I am Canadian and that is what you do from grade 4 on (unless you go into ‘French Immersion’ where you learn all of your subjects in French from Kindergarten). I can’t even remember if other languages were even offered in high school.
I can’t believe that more people didn’t comment on the Winnie the Pooh shirt part of this post. I hope she was thoroughly embarrassed and I also hope you were wearing something super cute, your Liberty of London shirt perhaps? Regardless though, you win, without question, it should go without saying that the person wearing adult appropriate clothing, wins every time.
Oh, and I took French from grades 4-10 because I’m Canadian, and its required. I also took Latin, but only for one semester.
I took French in Jr. High and HS because the French teacher was incredible. Unfortunately, I can only speak in the present tense these (mumble mumble) years later. I also took a year of Latin in HS and two years of Spanish in college. I so wish I’d taken more Spanish, but the HS Spanish teachers were crap. My employer just offered the Rosetta Stone to employees so I think I’m going to start studying Spanish on my own because I love languages.
One of the many pluses of living 3,000 miles away from where I grew up: I never see ex-boyfriends, ex-boyfriend stealers, or people I’d rather never see again from HS. Good stuff.
I took Latin for 3 years in high school, which did help me tremendously in all kinds of testing situations. 3 semesters of Spanish in college, which almost gave me ulcers, since I was the only student who didn’t seem to speak it fluently. All the other kids had taken it in high school, so I was way behind.
Wow, I had no idea of the Disney t-shirt hate. I have a bunch of them from our trips to WDW, and never think twice about wearing one. Guess I will have to rethink that, now that I know everyone is hating on my clothing choice!
I took Spanish, because I started in a private school that offered Spanish only and started in 7th grade, and then transferred to a public school that started language in 9th. So by my junior year I had finished all the Spanish they offered and took Latin. I would have liked to take German instead, but I grew up in a very Portuguese area, so Spanish, French, Latin and Portuguese was what was offered.
I took 4 years of French in high school, then went to Belgium to study it, then another 3 years of it in college. I can’t remember why I chose it in the first place, but I kept taking it because I fell in love with it.
Thank goodness you didn’t talk to her. Sheesh. My inner high schooler is mad at her on your behalf. And I’m laughing at her Pooh shirt. I mean, I like Pooh too, but that is totally the last thing you’d want to be spotted in by someone like you.
Hee, a winnie the pooh shirt. Yes, whenever I run into someone and would prefer to be looking my best, I’m inevitably wearing a stained shirt with terrible hair and oily skin.
I took 3 years of French in high school, and loved it. Took one semester in college, and learned as much in that semester as in all three years of high school.
I took French because my favorite aunt had taken french, and she was a bit of an idol for me and had promised to take me to France one day. I took it for three years in high school, though I slept through most of the 3rd year. I didn’t take a language in college, and I tried in vain to find any institution near me that offered a course in Urdu.
I took 3 years of Spanish in high school. Our only options were French or Spanish and of the two Spanish seemed more useful. Apparently I should have paid more attention in class because…well…whatever.
As for the Winnie the Pooh shirt, that’s um…cute? I don’t know. i just got rid of my penguin in a straight jacket shirt recently. LOL I’ve already met/know a good number of people my husband has been with since he somehow manages to stay friends with people when relationships of the romantic nature don’t work. I, on the other hand, talk only to a select few people I ever had any interest in romantically and it’s only because we were friends long before the actual liking occurred.
As a side note, my husband has a tattoo on his arm of Pooh Bear eating Piglets head like it was a honey jar. Yeah, he’s weird.
I took French and then Spanish as well to boost my college resume (or because my best friend urged me to take it with her, perhaps). The French classes were fine, but the Spanish ones were a joke–we were allowed to use our textbooks for the weekly quizzes…which were taken directly from our textbooks. Score! Except for the not-learning-any-Spanish part.
No Latin in HS, although I took it in middle school and then again in college. We read the Ecce Romani series in seventh grade, and I LOVED those books.
I took Spanish for three years in high school, instead of the French I really wanted, because I thought it would be useful. I lived in Kansas City and there was a large Hispanic population. Then I went on a missions trip to Honduras, and my three–THREE–years of study turned out to be a complete waste, because never once did a Honduran person understand what I was trying to say, and vice versa. I tried again a few years ago to learn Spanish, via a respected computer program, and my good Hispanic friend that I tried to practice on could not understand me. What? I said it just like they told me to! Argh!
I think I give up on Spanish. Maybe I should go ahead and try French after all…?
I have to take a strong stance against any cartoon-related clothing for adults. It must end. I hope she was at least a little embarrassed to be seen in it by you.
I took French for years and years and I was excellent at it, but it has had no practical use in my life. Spanish, however, is a valuable job skill for someone in the social services/education field, so I have been making New Years’ resolutions to learn it for several years now, to no avail.
I cross paths with my husband’s high school sweetheart from time to time (she cuts my MIL’s hair, so I hear about her life constantly whether I want to or not), and there is just something so primal that rises up in me when her name comes up. Even though it was ages ago, is completely over and forgotten, and, CLEARLY, I won.
Oh, a Winnie the Pooh shirt. What poetic justice for you! ;)
I took Spanish from 6th grade through some college. I was a little bit fluentish for awhile, especially while dating a full-blooded Mexican man, but I’m not a natural language learner… I think I’d have to live some Spanish-speaking place for awhile before I’d truly become fluent…
I don’t think I’d recognize the girls who my boyfriends cheated on me with in high school. I had a really bad track record with boys back then.
I’m Canadian so I studied French in school. It seemed the thing to do since it is one of our national languages. There also wasn’t a lot of choice for language in my school. If you wanted to take more than one year of language it needed to be French – otherwise you could take one year of French, German, Japanese and then you’d have to take French again.
a Winnie the Pooh shirt? Ouch.
Oh, and I studied Spanish. I wish I had stayed with it.
I took Spanish for 3 years, because it was the only option we had. I still have no idea how to speak Spanish.
I see the girl my husband cheated on me with ALL THE TIME, given he and I have a child together and she is now child’s step-mom. She does not wear winnie-the-pooh shirts, at least not in my presence.
I took French even though I grew up in Southern CA (and therefore it would have made much more sense to take spanish, considering everyone around me was speaking it) bc my BFF wanted to take French because her mom is French-Canadian by heritage. I SUCKED at it but somehow in college it clicked; I minored in it and spent 6mo in France on a study abroad program. Awesome. I can barely understand it today and my accent still stinks, and I would have had a blast in any study abroad program……..
Honestly, my advice to any kid starting a foreign language is: pick the country you like best (or THINK you would, based on their location/culture, etc.): Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Mexico, etc.; and then take the corresponding language. Because you just never know what opportunities will come your way…….
A Pooh shirt? Yeah, you pretty much win at life.
I lived in Germany for three years and when I moved back to the States in my sophomore year of high school I took German and FAILED it. That was the end of my language education.
Oh, and one time I looked up an ex on facebook and in his profile pic he was wearing a “Git er done” t-shirt so clearly I win at life too.
Oh, that was an unfortunate wardrobe choice!
I studied German for two years and really took to it. I am part German/Russian/Italian. Then, in college I studied Russian, keeping with my ancestral them. Holy cow, I failed. I loved reading and writing it, but the moment I had to UNDERSTAND what someone SAID, OUT LOUT, I was a goner.
Latin for four years. My 8th grade teacher, whom I adored, intimated that it was the language clever students take. So there you go.
I generally feel for adults in Disney clothing, especially if it is embroidered Disney clothing, because that is significantly more expensive and shows a deeper commitment to wearing Disney clothing than simply tossing on whatever t-shirt was handy.
Also, I took Russian. We had 5 languages to choose from in my school, and we took 7 weeks of each, twice a week, in 7th grade. In 8th, we chose a language to try and had that class 3 times a week for a year. By high school, we were expected to commit to one of our five choices (French, Spanish, German, Latin, Russian). I chose Russian because I like spending 5 years on something that will have zero future application in my life.
I was in an honors program and they forced us to take French. The only thing I can remember from French class besides Je ma’ppelle Maria was vous sucez le grand on. Although it’s quite conceivable I learned that in study hall instead. Hmm…
A Winnie the Pooh shirt? Really?
I’ve envisioned the meeting where I run into the friend who married my high school boyfriend many a time. I hope it goes down like something you described :)
I took Spanish because I thought it be useful. I can say my name. I think I learned more Spanish from my college roommate (Hillary) when she would drink tequila. She was fluent then.
I studied French for a couple of years at high school, then got bored and switched to German for a year. The teacher was bad tempered but the classes were great fun. It seemed like so many German words sounded rude in English – my friends and I spent most of the class in helpless giggles trying to say things like ‘er fahrt’ (this may be why the teacher was so grouchy, thinking about it).
Are there English words that make kids in other countries giggle, I wonder?
Nowadays one can study Maori at school, which is somewhat more culturally appropriate for New Zealand. I have been able to use my French on several visits to France, and even a bit of the German. Because I’m quarter Welsh, I wanted to learn Welsh once but it’s HORRIBLY difficult.
I took French, because I liked the sound of it when my older brother studied it. I also took a little Portuguese in college, just for fun (we lived in Brazil when I was learning to talk). I wish I’d taken Latin!
I took Spanish in high school, my careful choice being somewhat influenced by the fact that it was the only foreign language offered. I was ABYSMAL at Spanish. I was HORRIBLE. Spanish speakers all over the world still shudder and cover their eyes for a moment when they think about it (however, if a class had been offered in hyperbole, i would have been THE MOST SUCCESSFUL STUDENT EVER).
And then, being a wise and thoughtful human being, I minored in Spanish when I went to college.
*ahem*
Yes.
I still can’t speak it.
I took French — because, like some others have said, being Canadian we took it all through grade school (through grades 1-8 for me, but nowadays in Ontario they start in grade 4) and it was mandatory for 9th grade anyway (you had to have at least ONE french credit to graduate). I actually took it as an option in grade 10 because I was doing quite well at it; and I wish I had of continued on to take it in grades 11 and 12 however I did not.
In grade 10 we switched teachers partway through, and I went from having a phenomenal french teacher to an AWFUL french teacher and it soured the experience too much for me to want to choose it as another elective.
Also: did you know it’s like, a Canadian/USA thing to say “9th Grade” or “Grade 9”. They are sometimes used in both countries, obviously, but Canadians typically say “Grade 9”, “Grade 6”, etc and American’s more often say “9th Grade”, “6th Grade”. I find that really interesting! But I’m a teacher and a dork, LOL, so maybe just me? haha.
I took Spanish for 3 years in high school. I chose Spanish over French and German because I live in southern California and it seemed more useful. And boy am I glad I chose Spanish since I now work in healthcare and it seems like half the patients/families ONLY speak Spanish.
French, because I was lazy and had been speaking it since I was a toddler thanks to having a French nanny. In college, though, I took a year of Finnish and a year of Indonesian. Finnish has got to be one of the hardest languages I have ever studied. Ugh.
I took 4 years of Spanish in high school. Whenever I’m vactioning in Mexico or drunk it comes in handy.
I took Spanish in high school for three years and Latin for one year (it was required), but I got to take Spanish and German in elementary school and I spent a year abroad in Germany in high school (hence only three years of Spanish). Then in college I mixed it up even more by taking Russian for a year. I speak decent German, a bit of Spanish and not a word of Russian.
I’m from the Netherlands so aside from Dutch (duh) and English (compulsory, 8 years) I took 8 years of French (we started in primary school), 4 years of Latin, and 8 years of German.
I did a semester abroad in France, which means I now actually speak French (as opposed to knowing the rules and some vocabulary, as is the case with German), and it has saved me because it’s the common language between me and my family-in-law. They also speak Arabic, but even after 3 years of classes that’s still difficult for me.
And to confuse my brain even further, I did a language course in Spain (Spanish, of course) between high school and college, and a year of Swahili during my year at NYU. You understand I sometimes find the right word in the wrong language when speaking anything other than Dutch…
There is NEVER a good time to be caught wearing a Winnie the Pooh shirt. Srsly. Unless you’re FIVE YEARS OLD.
Oh, and Spanish. Mainly because I went to a tiny school where the French teacher was also my English teacher, Bible teacher and homeroom teacher and I kinda felt like I was seeing enough of her. I remember very little of it, but I remember my hilarious Spanish teacher vividly. (She always used to have neck hickeys!)
In seventh grade I took a class called Phenomenon of Language that taught Latin the first semester, and then 6 weeks each of Spanish, French, and Italian. You were supposed to pick the one you liked best to continue with, but they didn’t offer Latin or Italian in eighth grade so I went with French and stuck with that. I don’t remember much.
Oh my goodness, a Winnie the Pooh shirt. That is unfortunate and hilarious. I love it.
I took French — I can’t remember why. Maybe because I was really into the musical Les Miserable at that time? It turned out to very useful because I ended up going to university in Montreal and moving to Canada. Even though I’m not fluent it’s come in handy as a teacher because I get a lot more substitute calls since I feel comfortable teaching French Immersion for a day (I’m in Vancouver now where the French standards are much, much lower).
I was an exchange student in high school so I also speak fluent Norwegian. Yeah, not very useful except as a secret language since my husband was an exchange student in Sweden. The weird thing is that my “Norwegian” host mom was actually French-speaking Swiss so she spoke to me and my host sister a lot in French and I responded in Norwegian. Now whenever I speak French I have to concentrate really hard not switch over to Norwegian. It makes teaching French immersion especially interesting.
I was quite the goody-goody in high school so I couldn’t have been more pleased to run into one of the cooler kids while I was very slightly tipsy in a pool hall, playing — quite well! — with four guys from work.
If I ran into the girl who my boyfriend cheated on me with in high school and she was wearing a winnie the pooh shirt, I would
1- decide that it was the universe’s way of evening up the score
2- take a picture with my camera phone
3- run away really fast
4- put the picture on my blog but crop her face out
5- but keep the picture whole, with her face, in my computer so that when I get the margarita induced giggles I can look at it and laugh even harder.
THIS made me laugh so hard, on a day when I so badly needed it. Thanks Swistle!
Oh, and I took German. My dad (the football coach) was poker buddies with the german teacher, and first day of class freshman year the teacher looked up and said, “Annie Zimmerman? Why I remember you when you used to come downstairs in your jammies and sit on our laps while we played poker…” CRINGE!!!
OK… who did you see? Spill it!
I took Latin! For four years! And I loved it. And I’m very, very sorry about how little I remember.
My fourth year I was the only student so I had a private lesson w/ my teacher in the English department offices. I basically told her what I wanted to translate/study and that’s what we did. I could also tell her if I was stressed out about work in another class and she’d give me time to study. It was an excellent set up for senior year.
Latin, because I was (am) terrified of speaking in front of people. Even thinking about oral exams made me start shaking.
My high school boyfriend cheated on me with a country – he emigrated to Israel when he was in Year 12!
I took 5 years of French & 3 of Latin in high school, both compulsory. They also offered German & Greek (classical), but you had to be good at the compulsory ones to be allowed to study them, so…
I tried again with French at night school three times, one of those after I moved to Canada, but it doesn’t stick in my head. I also took ASL classes. I’m currently learning Norwegian and that suits me much better than French.