it's all about me

Our charming Lady of the Hills commented/asked here yesterday :

"(...) I am amazed that English is not your first language...I always forget that because your English is fabulous!!! It seems to me it is highly developed and very sophisticated...Do you speak English a lot of the time? And/Or did you learn English as a very young child? Just interested my dear."

Thanks for your kind words and your interest, dear blogfriend!! I seldom speak English nowadays. It is a passive activity through this blog and by reading blogs on a daily basis so I am sort of polishing my skills every day! I had English at school but I actually learned the language when I was 16 and went to the US (Midwest, nearest airport: Chicago) as an exchange student my senior year. Which didn't count for my school system so I had to go back for a semester to finish highschool, but it was worth it every single moment! Have a wonderful host family, we still keep in touch some 30 years later. With their help I went back to the US to finish my undergraduate degree and got my Master's in Economics right after that. You can imagine my English was fairly good at that time. But then I went back home to Santiago, Chile to work for an American bank. Until Mr Mar unexpectedly appeared in my life and - to make a long story short - we moved to Germany in 1985. Then I had to learn German (but I was young!) and adapt to a new environment, I worked for a German bank.

In late 1993 Mr Mar was transferred to Spain and I was happy at least I knew the language, my mother tongue! Wrong: I had to learn the local language, Catalan, which meant going back to school but I enjoyed that too! We speak German and Spanish at home. Sometimes a mixture of that spiced up with Catalan words, go figure.... Since we are a culture mix we love languages. Mr. Mar and I met in English in Chile, as his Spanish was "too French" at that time. He speaks German (he is German), Spanish, English and French fluently. I don't speak French very well but my 4th language is Catalan. Mr 18 manages all those languages as well, although his first language is German as he attended the local German school because we didn't know when/if we had to go back to Germany.

My blog is not only my way of having fun but also a fine therapy to keep my brain cells going, although sometimes I feel blogger will drive me insane ! You won't find highly intellectual posts here or elaborated ideas open for discussion because I am aware of my limited vocabulary and I cannot keep up with all the slangs/new expressions, but you already know this if you have been visiting! I have to look up words many times and check spelling but I truly enjoy it. It is a good mental exercise. I am very thankful/thrilled you find some time in your busy schedule to stop by.

It seems this was more than you wanted to know. It is all her fault, lol, OOLOTH got me started, I got carried away and now you - sort of - know the story of my life!

Update: thanks for your nice comments. I didn't want to brag about my language skills and it seems to me it might have sounded that way. I have lived in different countries and that's why I have learned some. It is only the learning potential we all have, if exposed to different environments. I hope I got my point across.
And because Melli asked: my thinking process takes place in the language I am writing/reading/speaking. I don't translate, that is too much work!