Although I am now an adult with a made-to-measure profession, I still have fond memories of my first attempts – in the 1970’s – to emulate my father, who had lived in the US for 3 years, asking him to teach me everything he knew about the English language. I soon also had my first opportunity to communicate with the children of American friends…the die was cast and my destiny, so as to speak, was decided: I attended high school specialising in foreign languages (and was complimented by the examination committee for my language skills), I took a degree in foreign languages, but, above all, I spent many months abroad (in total over 4 years) to perfect my English, German and Spanish.
After all these years I am still deeply passionate not only about language, but also about every aspect of the culture of the country whose language I have learned: when speaking to foreigners, I study their facial expressions and often even their lip movements and find myself (albeit intuitively and unconsciously) copying them, so much so that I am often told that I could be mistaken for a native German, Spanish or English speaker, as I use the same expressions!