There is an old joke that people who speak three languages are called trilingual, people who speak two languages are called bilingual, and people who speak one language are called Americans. I am in that category. I have studied French, Spanish, and Italian a little but never got any good. I just don’t enjoy learning languages.
But I do enjoy watching Wynette speak Spanish with the people here. A lot of language understanding is based on context. When she talks with, say, a taxi driver I get some things just because I know what they are probably talking about and hearing words I do know and cognates.
Once in a while I get what they are saying when she doesn’t because she is trying hard to understand their words and I just hear a few words I know and think about the context and what they are probably saying. Kind of a forest and trees situation. This happens less and less as she gets better at Spanish.
