Diario de GlennM, 14 jun. 10

You should check your local library for CD's and books for your language learning...I studied French in University in Canada...it's a difficult language...verbs have soooo many tenses!! Good luck with a printer!! Hope the leg is coming along nicely...and you'll soon be able to get out on your bike...Have a great Monday Glenn....huggggs 

Hi drd3775 - Spanish is the same. It is just a matter of mastering the verbs. And since I'm familiar with that I can practice learning words first. The difficulty with English I've been told is pronunciation and spelling and figuring out how to say and spell words. One man I know who is a Muslim from Serbia told me English was easier than the other European languages, he said German was really tough. He is a good guy, a good friend of my friend Mike. By the way, my leg is better slowly but surely. I have a good memory for thousands of words already in Spanish so verbs aren't much tougher after that, and I suppose French won't be much different. I live with 200 others almost in my building, I'm like the only non Hispanic who speaks Spanish OK. I have almost a photographic memory, once I learn something it sticks and that comes in handy with languages. I just need to watch a Spanish soap opera regularly and I will be completely fluent not long. A friend once told me after one has as much knowledge of a language like Spanish as I do to immerse oneself in a foreign country and I'd be completely fluent in no time at all... Anyway, no bike riding for a little while still... 

Total immersion is the way to learn a foreign language for sure!! If you want to *get by* one has no choice BUT to learn the language...I've been told that English IS a very dificult language to learn...When my son started Grade Six...(he sooooo needed to be challenged in school!) - we put him in French immersion school...No English allowed - except in English class...He stayed there through Grade Nine and continued with straight A's...He is now fluent in French...the city he works in has a huge Acadian French community...so it's helpful at the hospital that he speaks French as well...and of course, Canada has two official languages...French and English...(where I'm orginally from, BTW)...I will never be fluent in french..but I can get by in "old" Montreal....have a good day..off to the office! 

I do well with Spanish to the point I converse without any problem. I just need college classes where no English is spoken. I know I could pick up French in a matter of years too, you're always learning with languages of course and I for one must watch more Spanish television and I'm at the point I understand it OK so I'm not THAT far from fluency it's just immersing myself in it daily a bit, which I really haven't been doing... it's great your son speaks French. Most Europeans speak at least three languages, it is just the way it is over there. I speak Spanish for example better than some of my Hispanic neighbors speak English and they live here year round... 

You know Glenn, I never learned Spanish and I live in Florida which has a large population of Spanish or Spanish speaking people. All my kids speak the language and yet I never learned. I have thought of learning, but have no idea when I could find the time. Good for you to have the motivation for Spanish or French. It takes commitment. 

Thanks Next Number - I am near fluency in Spanish and hope to learn French too, but have to start from scratch on that one. I plan in like five years to be fluent in both despite my mother acting like I have no brain, I have an aptitude for languages no one in my immediate family has except me. (My niece is fluent in Spanish and Russian though).  

Glenn, you need not to take to heart what apparently your mother says to you. It is only damaging to your ego and I feel that is wrong for a mom to do to her son. You have proven that you are a smart, capable person and she should be grateful you are doing everything on your own and not sucking off anyone. I for one Glenn think you are a really good person and please don't pay attention to anymore negativity. You are your own man and have to answer only to YOU. Keep up you what you are doing. I appreciate you as my buddy. 

Thanks Next Number, my friend Debbie told me not to talk to her. She went on and on about my cousin Meredith's teenage son going to college to become a scientist. Meredith and her husband will put him through college, something she and my father would never do for me (and I told her the importance of having a good income in today's world). It is quite difficult being a guy and low income and then find a woman, my mother has no clue. She actually acts like I'm so stupid I would leave a computer in a cafe. My dad is equally nasty to me and always has been and I haven't talked to him since Christmas and I'm not missing anything at all. The way they are made me not want to pass on my genes. Seriously, I'm not kidding and I made sure to be able not to have kids... 

As our parents age - they can become quite difficult, very set with their ways and attitudes...I love my folks dearly...they've always been wonderful parents - but the older they get - the more opinionated they become!! I simply nod - it's senseless to argue with Dad - I'll NEVER win...lol...I'm truly giggling as I type this...I love him so much but he's such a pain in my ass at times!! It could be best for you to exchange simple pleasantries and avoid discussing your plans with them...and kudo's to Meredith for helping put her son through school...!!  

Yes - drd3775, my parents were absent in my life as a young man. And never supportive either. My mom was so rude as once in high school I got on 1st honors and she yelled at me in the car and said she and my father were never helping me through school, so I started skipping class, etc. I think as my parents were young when they had me and my twin sister and even my younger sister we aren't children but more like siblings they're still competing with for some bizarre reason. Whatever. I know I will get published eventually, if it is before their deaths I know they'll have issues if I'm successful. They have issues with me and I'm not - like I'm a threat to their "way things are supposed to be". I know what you mean though, I'm almost 50 and get treated like a ten-yr-old by them still... 

Also drd3775, now my younger sister who is going to be 42 in two months - her unemployment is running out. When I had my breakdown my mother did nothing to help me, and I helped her later that yr when she needed a loan after she had a health crisis (my mom) so she wouldn't lose her house. Anyway, my dad is the one who changed his phone number and doesn't want us kids calling him. I had quite abusive parents and could write a book about it and doubt I ever will it is just garbage no one needs to hear. I have NEVER made up anything I say here, I am telling the truth there is no reason to lie - I can't stand it have a neighbor who just makes up stories and it drives me nuts. If my mom and dad were nice people I would tell people about that wouldn't I? My twin sister is a wonderful parent, grandmother and is paying to fix up my mother's house because she's broke - and she has a damned good pension so good she doesn't know what money worries are...