OK...I have to admit...and it is most suredly without any pride...that I am a typical American, in that I do not know any languages other than English. (Granted, I can curse in at least 8 languages, maybe more.....) I have no excuse. I was raised in a multilingual family....my father spoke English, German, Yiddish, Hebrew, and managed to forget the Polish he had known. My mother spoke English, Russian, German, French, Latin..maybe a trace of Yiddish and Hebrew. Her mother spoke English, German, Yiddish, Russian to me...usually in the same sentence. Despite hearing these languages all my life, I have been incapable of learning another language, despite having, at various points in my education, been taught German, French, and Hebrew. (My children fortunately inherited their language ability from their mother as well as their grandparents...they succeeded at learning, between them, French, Spanish, Latin, and Hebrew...my youngest is currently learning Mandarin in high school...and, yes, it is a public school) So...I obviously cannot get too much out of the "foreign" (to me) language in Viateur's posts. To which I say...keep up the good work! Just because I am ignorant is no excuse not to post in other languages. I am proud to subscribe to an international list, and I am thrilled to see posts that are international....and English may be on its way to being an "international" language, but I like seeing what the rest of the world uses for discourse...and I have to admit, when push comes to shove, I'm amazed at what I can figure out when reading another language...when I really try to comprehend it. take care, Eric Muehlbauer in very wet Queens NY...paphs hookerae, liemianum, and delanatii in bud...and of course Phrag besseae...............................................
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