I know Latin and classical Greek well enough to read original texts and get the information, if not the subtleties without needing my reference books right at hand anymore. But those are really academic languages.
For a personal, real-life applicable second language, I am in the grueling process of RElearning Czech, both spoken and literary forms. I was a fluent Czech speaker as a small child, since my Czech-born grandmother lived with us until I was 3, and apparently only spoke in Czech when my parents were at work and she looked after me. So really, I probably learned English and Czech at roughly the same time. But Grandma moved back to New Prague when I was three and my dad took over the primary childcare duties, as he worked at night.
But I guess I had developed a habit of speaking in Czech during the day, and answered his English in Czech and his reaction was to put the kibosh on (his words exactly) "that funny talk". So the only times I was exposed to another Czech speaker was on infrequent phone calls with Grandma and visits to her primarily Czech and German speaking town during cultural festivals or other Czech gatherings she always took me too. So yeah, big suprise, I lost the ability to speak Czech and really can only understand a small part of what I hear in the sense that 'I think I used to know what that word meant'. Essentially, I went from conversationally fluent to 'deja vu' familiarity with the language of my heritage.
After Grandma passed away recently, I wrote a very very brief farewell in Czech to whisper as she was put in the ground, and have continued relearning what I once knew, partially because it keeps me feeling connected to my grandparents even now that they're gone and I'll never return to New Prague again.
And as soon as I graduate, my mother and I are traveling to Prague, like Grandma and I had planned to do before she passed. I want to see the all the places she spoke of so fondly, and be able to talk to the people of the homeland my Grandmother had to leave behind when she fled during wartime.
Literary Czech is killing me though. Why the hell did my dad have to make me quit being bilingual?!?
Hopefully this post wasn't too long or saccharine. Related note though, any native Czech speakers/readers on these boards who could recommend a good resource for relearning the language? Especially without an American accent mucking it all up? It would be much appreciated.
