On Sat, 24 Sep 2016 18:00:05 -0400, Dave Smith
> wrote:

>On 2016-09-24 4:08 PM, Je?us wrote:
>> On Sat, 24 Sep 2016 09:26:11 +1000, Bruce >
>
>>> I don't know. All languages are an illogical mess with as many rules as
>>> exceptions. I guess because they grow organically over time, not
>>> according to any plan.
>>
>> Indeed. Asian languages sound most alien to me, I'm more comfortable
>> with German and Russian/Ukrainian, but only because of my family
>> background.
>
>
>I grew up in a WASP environment. Then I had a friend who was German and
>spent a lot of time in his house and German was the most commonly spoken
>language in his family. I picked up some from hanging out there and
>took German for a few years in high school.

Much the same for me - I picked up Ukrainian and German when I was
young from just from family and friend's conversations.

>We were taught French in Gr
>7 and 9 and then through high school.

LOL... French. Oh dear. We had French classes in 1st year high school
and I found it very difficult to learn - partly because I wasn't
remotely interested and partly because our teacher was a nasty, highly
unlikable bitch.

>When travelling in Europe I could
>get by in France and Germany. English and German made it possible to get
>by with Danish and Dutch. Italian was a little more of a struggle.
>Asian languages?? They make no sense to me at all.

I just realised there is one HUGE exception when it comes to Asian
languages: Indonesian. It's an incredibly easy language to learn, I
took Indonesian back in 1st year high school (there is a large
Indonesian population in Darwin). What I do need to do *now* is start
learning some basic Cambodian, as I'll be there in about 6 weeks.