We had some Spanish instruction in elementary school and I took French in high school; German in college; and French for reading in grad school. I was never any good at any of them. I can read haltingly and can understand simple spoken sentences. I just can't produce sentences. I was in Germany about eight years ago with a friend who had also taken German in college and we found that we understood more than we expected. We just couldn't say anything. We found ourselves trying to say "I understand, I don't speak" in pidgin German.

in a movie or sitcom

Hee. The "all or nothing" syndrome, yes! I suffer from it tremendously.

Looks around for hidden camera. Wipes brow in relief at not finding one.

That's exactly it, Ginger. My reading comprehension is fairly decent in both German and Spanish, oral comprehension in Spanish better than German (but not by much), can barely speak German, but can find my way around basic Spanish when I have to.

Other languages, such as Spanish, function almost solely in the subjective.

You mean the subjunctive mood? Case is something you do to nouns, and neither Spanish nor English does much with it. And yeah, in Spanish the subjunctive is called for a lot more than in English; and its use in English has become dialect, except for formal writing.

Exactly the sort of subtlety Sun should miss, being a non-native speaker!

It became nearly the default for me by the time I finished my 5th semester of college Spanish. Yet, now, I can barely remember any of it.

When I was in Barcelona and Paris on my honeymoon, I quickly discovered that I could get around very well speaking about myself in the present tense. Any other verb tenses, and I was shit out of luck, despite having passed three years in both French and Spanish with flying colors. (Of course, I also discovered that most service people in France and Spain will switch to English if they hear an American accent, and so I could have gotten along almost as well speaking no other languages at all, which was a little disappointing because I was looking forward to the practice.)

Looks around for hidden camera. Wipes brow in relief at not finding one.

Well, it *is* hidden...

Of course, I also discovered that most service people in France and Spain will switch to English if they hear an American accent, and so I could have gotten along almost as well speaking no other languages at all, which was a little disappointing because I was looking forward to the practice.

That was the biggest difficulty in using the language. It was such a relief to be able to revert to English that I really didn't pursue using my Spanish as much as I could have.

You mean the subjunctive mood?

Yeah, that. See what I mean about not really understanding the parts of language? Insufficient instruction in English means it really fucks with your ability to learn a foreign language. I rest my case.

I agree that a few years of English lessons in school wouldn't necessarily make Jin able to speak English in any meaningful way. He might remember "Hello" and "My name is," but if he doesn't want to use them, he won't.

As a side note, I have a Korean intern right now. She was motivated enough to come to the U.S. as a publications intern, so I would assume her English is excellent by Korean standards. And she has told me that she doesn't feel her schooling was especially helpful in learning usable American English; from what she says, they spent a lot more time on grammar than on things like vocabulary and comprehension, and most English teachers are also Korean. I doubt Jin's education in a fishing village in the 70's, was better than hers in a city fifteen years later.

I thought after Jin's dad suggested that he and Sun stay in America that we'd find out that Jin went and took English lessons too. But now I think that Jin really doesn't speak English but now he'll open himself to learning it in true immersion style. Watching Jin's accented English should be fun.

It occurs to me that Sun and Jin *can* be starting over. Just from farther back than either of them had wanted or intended.

I realize any relationship is possible with all the characters, but if the writers have direction, they could bring the two together again after they have reinvented themselves.

We could obsess with their arcs next season.