Theopaulson

I sell stuff to the Amish in your old community. The vast majority are fantastically conversant, humble, and hilarious.

How fast can you learn a new language? How long does it take you before you can begin speaking passably in the language or reading with a decent fluency?

I had a college pal that is a polyglot. When I met him around 20 he was fluent in Spanish, English, German, and French. Truly passable for native in German and French (was raised in Latin america with American parents so was bi-lingual from birth).

What amazed me most was watching him learn Arabic and Dutch (at the same time). We were in the netherlands and a few days in he starts speaking Dutch with no prior study or understanding. he just picked it up listening to the verbage and grammar around him.

THEN he picked up an arabic newspaper, figured out the grammar, alphabet, and verbs and began reading in arabic within a few days. Fuck that!

I was so blown away. This was pre youtube, pre smart phones, shoot pre cell phone for most. I was blown away. Last I heard he added a few languages but I lost track of him. Craziness.

We have a neighbor (in a fairly suburban neighborhood- middle class/working class etc etc) who sometimes has a phone sometimes doesn't. Sometimes gets her kids to school daily. sometimes doesn't. And her kids are good kids with high intelligence and appear to be doing decent in school. But they have missed close to a month of school.

I can't imagine what is like when you take that and multiply it across every class. Parents that don't have enough funds to always have a phone or always have it on. Or get their kids to school well fed and ready everyday. Or who live in a smaller living situation that is loud and not the greatest for studying. I grew up with my own room, a quiet house, plenty of supplies to study. Two phone lines (pre-cell phones) and plenty of support if needed. It makes teaching basic things difficulty at a time where the student only has so much control over their environment.

That is such a sad reply dude. Wow. Thanks for the honesty and solid answering of questions.

I don't know how exactly to ask this as its a broad question...

But why do you think less than desirable people can easily become foster parents? And how do you alleviate the fear that many potential foster parents have that they will get a kid that will put them or their other children into a dangerous or unhealthy situation?

Who was the coolest foster parent you had?