Over 90% of Germans speak English. What foreign language do you speak?

[JDPriestly]

206. A lot of Germans speak really good English.

They learn it in school and begin quite young. I suppose that people have different interests and maybe even capacities for learning language. I found it to be easy. But then, other fields are just out of reach for me. Chemistry for instance. I can write a paper about some aspect of chemistry. But as soon as the writing is done, I am back to square one in terms of what I really know about it. It's like one big mystery to me. I did not have good basic courses in grade and high school science. But I had wonderful teachers for language and literature.

So whether we speak languages or are better at other things depends to some extent on an accident of fate.

My father loved language and learned to read in several. When he died he was still taking a course in Greek from a Catholic priest so that he could read the original Bible text. Now that is far more love of language than I could ever hope to muster.