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Virginia, the "time-stamp" idea is truly interesting to me.

In high school and college, I took a combined four years of French classes. However, that was 25 years ago and I hadn't used the French since. And I was never good enough with the language to call myself fluent, by any stretch of the imagination.

A couple of years ago, a friend and I went to Paris. It was the first time for either of us. Before we went, I bought audio CDs and a workbook to help refresh my basic vocabulary.

What was amazing to me is that after we were there for a couple of days, it felt like a "window" had opened up in my brain and I suddenly had access to the words I'd learned decades before. I would find myself wanting to ask something specific, and words or phrases would come to me -- in French -- and they would be the words I would need (and these were words I hadn't reviewed on the CDs.)

It made me think that my refresher CDs, combined with the stimulus of hearing French spoken all around us and on television, somehow got my brain to open up that long-stored trove of French classes. (And it was fun to realize that hey, I must have actually learned something in those classes!!)

Great post. It's fascinating to think about. Merci!

January 30, 2009 - 11:06am

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