dday9

Is this forum still active?

In case y'all missed my introduction, I took Spanish from Kindergarten all the way until my Junior year and was what I would consider fluent in Spanish. However, since graduating in 2009 I did not use the language. Right now, I can mostly understand somebody speaking Spanish, but I have difficulties articulating sentences. What would y'all suggest I do to be able to start actually talking rather than just understanding?

Hi there, my name is David but I go by dday9 on various online forums. I live in South Louisiana and I'm wanting to learn French and Spanish. For my French, I know a few words from my parents and grand-parents like katin, chau, freze, and phrases like fais do-do. But I really don't know how to speak the language, the best I can do is pickup a few words when people are talking. The reason for me learning French is cultural. Louisiana had a huge Cajun-French population, but since the Vietnam war it has dwindled down quite a bit and I would like to do my part in learning the language. For my Spanish, I actually took Spanish emersion from Kindergarten all the way until my Junior year and was fluent in Spanish. However, since I graduated I did not use the language and I'm extremely rusty. Right now, I can mostly understand somebody speaking Spanish, but I have difficulties articulating sentences and suck at remembering the correct conjugation of verbs. As it is, my wife's step mother is Puerto Ricana and speaks Spanish daily to her parents, but she refuses to speak Spanish to me(although I don't know why, we have a great relationship). The reason I want to learn Spanish is because I work in the insurance industry and I have a lot of Spanish speaking customers from Texas that I would like to help. Hopefully this is the right place for me and I get a lot of help!