So, I was thinking about languages. Once, long ago, I spoke Spanish, and once, not so long ago, I spoke a bit of Italian. In order to go on to graduate school in Classics, I'll need to know Italian, French, and German, since that's what all the critics write in. Plus, of course, Greek and Latin.

My Latin has atrophied terribly, although it wasn't that stellar to begin with. I was full of myself for being good at Greek when no one else was, so I ignored Latin entirely. Now I can't remember what the hell a gerundive is. My Greek is almost as bad, but I pick it up again fairly quickly if I put my mind to it.

So where does that leave me?

I can make myself vaguely understood in Italian, haltingly, as long as I'm not trying to discuss anything beyond the weather, directions, or food. My Italian has a tendancy to turn into Latin or Spanish, though. Sometimes even Greek, which is very strange. I suspect that at this point I can only be understood by a handful of dyslexic linguistic scholars.

I like to think that makes me special.