Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

Why are foreign languages so bloody difficult to learn? Not only does it seem to take forever to learn nouns, verb conjugations, case endings, prepositions, and other objects; but if you stop using what you have learned for a month, you basically have to start all over again!

In high school, I took three years of Spanish. By the end of those three years I could get around a street in Mexico (or in Santa Barbara for that matter) fairly well. Four years later, I can barely order a taco at Taco Bell.

I also took a year of independent study Polish during high school, and I have spent six months there since. While I'm in Poland I do pretty well. I can be understood and I can communicate to an extent. That was seven months ago, and I forget simple words such as why, house, and bathroom!! I still remember songs from second grade, why can I fill my head with more useful knowledge!

Not to mention how all foreign languages get combined into some pseudo retard language. When I studied Arabic in Egypt for four months, my first inclination is to respond, "Si, gracia... errr uhhhh, shoot wrong language, one second........" Now that I'm back in the states it all just morphs into one foreign language apart from English.

All those Europeans speaking six languages interchangeably are such inspirations!! But they really piss me off! Why don't American schools teach foreign languages when we are young? Replace worthless Colorado or California history with Spanish, do everyone a favor. I guess I'll just have to keep grudging on through my Arabic lessons at City College, which I'm likely to forget in two months anyways... such is life!