h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I learned English, Irish, Latin, French and German in school, but the Latin and German were at a very elementary level, and the French only slightly higher level. The Irish was at a level where we should have been able to converse fluently in the language, but I had a succession of very bad Irish teachers who turned me against the language and I never was able to speak it.

would you get much oppotunity to use the Irish language skills now? I don't suppose it's too late to learn.

In a way I'm sometimes glad that I didn't learn German at school. On the other hand - it means my grammar can be hit and miss, even if my spoken German is pretty ok and very idiomatic.

Irish isn't really spoken much around Dublin. There are some parts of the west of Ireland where it is the main language but I rarely go there. Everywhere in Ireland all the signs are in both languages, so I'll never be in a position that I need to know the language.

But I'm missing out on all the culture of the poetry and verse in that language.

yes, that's a good enough reason to give it a go

I couldn't speak German when I arrived here in 1973, which I think was an advantage, too. However, I had had a very good grounding in French and English grammar and the book-learning was no problem so that I would consider my German grammar to be good too. If you want to be a secretary, you can't afford spelling or grammar mistakes, anyway.

I think the reason why I am (quite humbly ) so much better at spelling and grammar in English than many of my colleagues is that I learned to speak and write it at the same time, when I was about seven - I never learned a vernacular first. It's really not a logical or phonetic language.

I grew up with Danish, German and Plattdeutsch - and my German grammar is ridiculous, always was