Ich bin ein Muenchener Kindl — 3 years ago
Because I was born in Germany to an American and a German/Hungarian, I was raised bi-lingual. I was five when I moved to this country and at that time (I am told) I was interchanging sentences between the two languages easily and regularly. As I got older, I spoke less and less German, to the point where I would only speak it when we went to visit our family every year. I had no idea of the value of knowing another language fluently and my parents did a poor job of conveying that to me. It’s been 15 years since I’ve been back to visit my family, and frankly, I’m embarassed that I wouldn’t be able to communicate with my cousins or my aunts and uncles. As it is, I struggle with phone calls around the holidays and the occassional email or instant messenger chat. I want to go back to Germany to immerse myself. I really believe I can pick it up again with semi-ease. My foundation is pretty solid and I still have decent comprehension. In addition to German, I would like to become fluent in Spanish, in which I had 12 years of schooling and is also the language my mother teaches as a high school teacher, and possibly Portuguese. My mother is quadra-lingual, so while my goals may seem lofty, I know it’s possible.
