Slurpgeit said:
don't you learn other languages at school? here i learn german, english and french, next to dutch.
Last time I took a language class in high school was over twenty years ago

.... I did a semester of german, italian, and french, followed by a year of german. I still remember some of my german. I learnt a little japanese for a business trip - enough to say hello, thankyou, ask for directions, order beer, etc. When you don't practice a language for a long time, you lose the skill. I was quite good at German (I was told I had an ear for languages and accents, but unfortunately not for music), but dropped "arts and humanities" style subjects in favour of advanced maths, computer science, engineering science, physics, chemistry, etc.
Looking back, I regret not knowing another language ... though as an Australian, my English isn't too bad, and after living in the US for some time now, I speak American and Canadian OK as well. Moving to "the south" has provided some new challenges - I am not sure what they speak here sometimes, but it sure doesn't sound like English
