Press 1 for English

I really don't understand why so many people forget everything they learned in high school Spanish; I only took 3 years of Spanish (stupid middle-to-high-school transition counselor...thought I needed P.E. more than foreign language and art ) and I can read it more or less fluently, half-ass understand native speakers and half-half-ass speak it. I would credit the teachers, except a lot of my classmates forgot it as soon as they graduated. Then again, I'm a complete language nerd. I listen to a lot of things in languages I don't understand, mostly German/Norwegian/Japanese. Maybe the general interest is what helps me retain better.

At least in California/Texas, it's super easy to build up Spanish by virtue of everything being more or less bilingual. My dad and I usually had nothing to watch on the weekends, so we would watch the Spanish channel (music shows like Caliente and Control). I listen to a little bit of Mexican pop/rap...not that much, and probably whatever is ridiculously mainstream. But one of my favorite things is to pick up those free Spanish-language newspapers that they have outside of places, and read them. Reading newspapers in any language is a great way to build up useful vocabulary, because the news utilizes the words used most in everyday communication.

Jam it back in, in the dark.