Who knows French?

[kellychaos]

I've taken three years of high school french and three semester in college. And what did I learn about language classes? That there really is not a whole lot to UNDERSTAND about another language. I received A's in all those classes and got by on pure memorization. I barely remember any of it. Sure, if I were to pick up a some book with french text, I'd understand most of it but to speak conversationally ... not hardly. I'm of the opinion that to really learn a language, you have to immerse yourself in it to the point where your very existence depends on the fact that understand the language ... i.e. actually living in France, Belgium, Quebec, ect.