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I love languages, all of them. It's fun to piece together roots of words and translate even if you've never heard the word before and don't have a translating dictionary... given the origin of the word comes from a language that has influenced your own. English is the only language I speak fluently, then Spanish and basic Italian to follow. I can understand Spanish better- and if I hear it spoken I pretty much gather everything being said. But I have not used it enough to remember words on my own in conversation- I am more of a 'fluent listener'. From there I know bits of other languages, but minimal.


If you are familiar with Latin and/or Greek, there are a lot of English words you realize are rooted from those languages- and it goes on. But you don't even need that much experience for these word games. Where it becomes a neat experience, is when you are hearing words in another Latin-based language you are not familiar with. At times you will recognize a word as familiar, but it is not English. Many words in English, Spanish, French and Italian are very similar. Without speaking those languages, you can pick out the subjects and actions as familiars... and figure out what they mean. Once a Spanish-speaking friend told me that he would speak on the phone slowly to another friend who only spoke Italian- each of them speaking only their language could understand each other due to the closeness of the words.


When I was a small child, I learned basic Spanish. I loved piecing these things together- I knew right away that puerta was a passage of some sort. It means 'door' in Spanish- and in English, a portal is a way in or out. Not surprising the Italian word is porta. More and more I would find these connections. Sabado is 'Saturday' in Spanish, and Sabato in Italian. I could always remember the word for Saturday because the Sabbath for Jews is Saturday. Sunday was an easy word to remember as Domingo in Spanish and Domenica in Italian because these cultures are dominated by Christianity and their day of worship is Sunday- the Latin, dominicus, "the day to consecrate the Lord”.


Studying Geology in 8th grade I was reading about different stones and minerals without their pictures- I knew instantly that 'azurite' was blue. Why? 'Blue' in Spanish is azul and azzurro in Italian.



Recently, when I watched the current version of the movie, "True Grit", Mattie tells Rooster that she would like a parley with him. This is not modern English- I'd actually never heard it used before... but I knew instantly that she meant she wanted to speak/talk/have a conversation with him. Why? Because my mind went straight to the French Parlez-vous français?, which means "Do you speak French?" 'Parlez' is pronounced 'parlay'... it was a quick association.


If you've ever connected words in different languages this way you know how fun it is. And if you haven't... give it a shot. You might surprise yourself with what you know, never having learned it conventionally.

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If any of this is of interest to you and you want to take it a step further- check out: How To Learn Any Language: Quickly, Easily, Inexpensively, Enjoyably and on Your Own, by: Barry Farber. He suggests other books to help you along the way, like, "Harry Loraine's Magic Memory Aid". I couldn't find the book at the time (many years ago) and instead purchased, The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School, and at Play and The Memory Doctor: Fun, Simple Techniques to Improve Memory and Boost Your Brain Power. From there suggestions like buying a familiar novel in the language you want to learn, and possibly watching a TV channel in that language as well (movies, even picking up their newspapers and magazines)- you submerge yourself and these word associations will pop-up constantly.