“To have another language is to possess a second soul.” – Charlemagne
Portuguese
My mother tongue despite having lived in the UK (and being a British Citizen) for just over half of my life.
English
Despite still having an accent that most cannot place… I do have a fluent, and better than many, English. When TOEFL was a “thing” I had to test my level of English to be able to do things I wanted. At 98% it was not shabby… still don’t know what I missed and that is the worst bit.
French
Well, I did work in France for a while and I did pick up the language quite fast from school level to conversational and work level very quickly. I have found myself mixing it with Russian/Ukrainian these days… lack of practice I think. Will need a few days to get back again but not an issue.
Spanish
As a child I used to go to Spain with my parents on holidays even if for short periods of time as Portugal is as good as Spain and the world at large beckoned… As an adult I also was there plenty of times. I have found out that I can be comfortable in Spanish (Castellano) and Catalan… go figure.
Ukrainian & Russian
Well, this is an interesting one. I learnt Russian alphabet and some vocabulary years back and slightly improved on it when visiting the country. Later when visiting Ukraine. Now more interested in Ukrainian and learning it little by little… even if at a slow pace now.
I do have an accent and lack of practice/vocabulary but something I can easily pick up on
Slava Ukrainii
Italian
This one is a bit of an embarrassment at the moment. Whilst in Italy I managed to communicate in Italian to the surprise of my ex-wife… I have now tried and I found, like with French, mixing it with Russian/Ukrainian. It is worse than French as I have not actually lived or worked there… so would be a slower process? but then again, if someone can communicate and forgets for lack of practice will it not pick up a lot faster?…