“How is education supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home winemaking course, and I forgot how to drive?”
— Homer J. Simpson

My Chinese is awful. After three months of rather casual study, mostly focusing on saying things that get me to and from work and a meal somewhere between, I’m up to the point of saying simple sentences and butchering most of the language.

My Italian, on the other hand, is getting steadily worse. Now, I was never fluent in Italian, but I was leagues beyond what my Chinese is now. Hell, I could operate anywhere in the Old Country without a problem. I can still hold a conversation in la bella lingua when the mood or need strikes me.

Lately, though, my rudimentary Chinese has been pushing Italian vocabulary out of my brain. I catch myself saying things like “bu shi male” or “Nihoa, come stai.”

Since I tend to look at my Chinese phrases and ask myself, “Can I say that in Italian?” I suspect this is only going to get worse.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 21st, 2006 at 11:40 pm and is filed under mess of a language. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.