On Languages – A Grandmother By Any Other Name Is….?

I love languages. My own father speaks 8 languages. But that’s not a fair statement, because when my father was growing up, his family traveled a lot. They were escaping the Nazis and so they left Belgium (French), and went on to Portugal (Portuguese). After that they traveled to Cuba (Spanish) and finally the U.S. Additionally, my father speaks Hebrew, Yiddish and German “just because,” and of course English. And oh – my dad speaks Flemish too because that was one of the languages during his childhood in Antwerp, Belgium. So children and adults in those days learned languages like kids nowadays learn to use Apps on their iphone! Very easily and seamlessly. So here I am, a middle aged grandmother and all I speak is English, Hebrew, and some version of Spanish. I know a smidgen or “sthickel” (little bit) of Yiddish – kind of words and phrases here and there. Nothing to write home about. And yes, I studied … Continue reading