PriscillaKing

The phone conversation might be easier than face-to-face conversation, especially in front of other people, as a way to practice a language when no other problems are involved. My husband's ex-wife used to break into French with people who didn't speak French at all, which used to bother me, because she spoke fluent English--either she'd learned both languages at the same time or she'd even learned English first. When my husband said anything in French I always tried to answer in French. When his ex did I always had the feeling that she was setting some sort of trap, and made a point of answering in English.

I think being angry affects people's ability to speak any language well, even their own. I can spew anger in Spanish as well as English--some of the patterns of abusive language are almost identical--but of course, if the goal is to communicate rather than just spew anger, the ability to spew anger is not helpful.

In my twenties I lived in multiethnic suburbs of Washington where the norm was for twenty-somethings to rent the bedrooms and share the kitchen in a house/flat, and yes, these houses were typically multilingual. An official house language might be set by the oldest occupant and used when that person was at home, but housemates might use whatever other languages they had in common. My husband and I had learned English first but sometimes, either after speaking or reading other languages, we spoke Spanish or French at home. (I'm very wary of saying I speak French, but I do read it and will speak it with people who are either kind and sympathetic, or desperate.)

If I want to learn to pronounce a language, I want to study in a place where I can listen to, speak along with, and repeat either a recording or a teacher. If I merely want to read information about a language or anything else, almost any place will do, but the most efficient place for me is at the computer. Typing material into a computer file helps me remember it better.

Nice to see a Latin forum here. It's still a valuable language--I studied enough of it to write a bit of science fiction about a world where it's used as a trade language, the way some people in Europe keep trying to revive. (By way of introduction...I'm an amateur linguist; speak only two languages but have studied the grammar and vocabulary of several.)