FinMeander

I took Spanish in junior high, high school, and at the Naval Academy because it seemed like the most practical foreign language to learn given the demographics of the Americas.  My Spanish has come in handy at various points in my naval career and was a big help in learning passable "tourist Italian" while we lived in Naples, Italy for two years.  I enjoy speaking Spanish (or at least attempting to speak it) and I like that you can pronounce any word almost by just looking at it and following a relatively small set of simple rules.  I was born with the gene for r-r-r-r-olling my r's and I am pretty bad at the nasal and back of throat noises needed for other European languages. ...but if I had a dollar for every time I wished I could speak French over the past 30 years, I could probably buy  a case of Dom Perignon.  Between my limited visits to French speaking Africa, my periodic interactions with the French Navy, and my casual encounters with both French and non...