Español, Türkçe, Inglizce ... oh my!

Growing up in South Florida, I felt like I had a halfway decent Español (Spanish) vocabulary. I took it in high school. I took it in college. The language is all over the bottom part of Florida. I thought that I knew enough to communicate. At least a little bit.

But if I did know any Español, at any point, I now realize that I no longer can claim that at all.

Learning Türkçe (Turkish) has completely removed any remembrances of Español from my mind. Forever I think.

My dear friend Angelica is from Spain. Español is her first language, and while her Inglizce (English) still has small gaps (mostly in expressions), she speaks amazing Inglizce as well. Her son Noah is bilingual, and her husband Dan, who grew up in Spain as a missionary's son, is also fluent in both languages.

Last night I had the opportunity, albeit brief, to meet Angelica's mother, her aunt, and another friend of their family. They live in Spain. They do not speak Inglizce. I attempted to say something to them in Español and all I could even think to say was: Memnum Oldum (It's nice to meet you!)

That would be good if Memnum Oldum were words in Español. But they are not. Menum Oldum is Türkçe. Sigh ...

So instead I was left to have Angelica translate for me. This caused her to blush a bit since I insisted on saying nice things about her and making her translate them for me.

I remember when we moved here that our friend Nick said he had to decide not to learn Türkçe. The reason is that he is an Inglizce speaker. His wife speaks both Inglizce and Español. He is close to mastering Español and therefore had to admit that he could not learn two new languages at the same time.

I concur Nick! In the past I would have loved to try and speak Español with Angelica. But I must let it go. My tiny brain is only capable of one thing at a time.

Español, Türkçe, Inglizce ... oh my!