Comfortable, if not understood

I met an Italian teen-ager the other day. And she speaks English. Very good English. And I had an enlightening and intelligent and inspiring conversation with her. In English, of course. And obviously I came away impressed. She’s only 15. I’ve never met a teen-ager quite like this before. So mature. So conversant in her second language. Learned in school. I admire her. And envy her, too. Because I wish I had a second and even a third language. That’s one of the big regrets of my life. It’s probably far too late for me to master a second language. It’s gonna take all of my limited brainpower to speak a barely rudimentary Italian. Maybe with a vocabulary of several hundred words. Certainly better than nothing. Meawwhile, I suppose I should be thankful that I can do a decent job of speaking and writing English. In a way that makes me feel comfortable, if not understood. –Jim Broede