学进去

Very few of us become fluent in another language by studying it in high school.

I made a (an) _____ to maintain (保持) the little bit of French that I learned in school, but eventually realized that this was ____ . I was well aware that new languages are_____ learned when young, and that our abilities _____ with age. However, just before my 50th birthday, I ______ French classes.

After I was _____ to see which group I belonged to, I was placed at almost the _____ level. When I looked around at my first Saturday morning class, I was _____ by how many of the students were learning French as a third, fourth, or _____ fifth language.

While I’d always considered myself as a quick _____ , that was no longer the case. I _____ new vocabulary very slowly. What I learned one week seemed to ____   as soon as I learned the next skill. I looked up the same _____ and language structures over and over again.

Now, a couple of _____ in, I can listen to the news in French and catch 90 percent of it on the first try, read a novel if the language is not too difficult, and hold up my end of a _____ if it doesn’t go too fast. Who knows what I might still ____   ? I’ve learned so much beyond grammar and vocabulary. I’ve met people from around the world who have the ______to make fools of themselves to learn something new. I have a _____ understanding of how something can look _____ different from another perspective. I’ve learned that a language is not just a set of words, but a way of _____ .

But most of all, I’ve learned that it really is never too late to learn something new.