One of my favorite things is to be able to practice speaking other languages. I sometimes get nervous at first, but it makes me so happy to do something that means so much to me. If I can have a conversation with someone in French it makes me very happy. I wish I could get the Spanish-speaking people who live around here to let me practice speaking it with them. They have plenty of people here with whom they can practice English, but I have difficulty getting practice speaking Spanish. When it comes to languages my motivations are pretty selfish. I just enjoy languages so much. It makes me so happy when I can improve my understanding of Russian, Polish, Czech or Slovak. This is not to please or impress other people. In Prague it was so much fun to be able to complete a transaction in a store in Czech. At first if I struggled with what I wanted to say, I would say, "Jsem hloupý." Then the people would say that I was not stupid. It did help break the ice sometimes, and make both of us smile.
I also have had fun with people who did not know or had forgotten I spoke Spanish. Once in the dorm when I was in school I was in the lobby. There were a couple of South American girls talking. They had forgotten that I spoke Spanish. A good-looking guy came in and left. One of the girls said to the other, "Querría que vuelve un poco más desnudo." She remembered that I spoke Spanish, and her face turned bright red. More recently I was in a store, and a Mexican guy trying to be funny spoke to me in Spanish. I answered him in Spanish, and his attitude completely changed. He had friends with him. He got excited and called them over and said, "Él habla el mejicano." They asked me if I knew where they could find jobs. It became a pleasant conversation.
Maybe some day I'll be able to learn Ukrainian and Romanian too.
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