When I was a young man serving aboard the U.S.S. Newport News in the United States Navy, and later while working for NASA, I traveled the world and was able to learn a smattering of many languages. At one point, I was able to converse in Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese and even a bit of Japanese, but that was many years ago. Unfortunately, when I left NASA my use of those other languages was soon lost because of non-use. I still retained a fair degree of Spanish until my sister-in-law, who is of Puerto Rican decent, moved to Florida. She has been gone for more than 15 years, and now I struggle to understand a conversation in Spanish. I think this is true with many of the skills we acquire, including music. If you don't use it, you'll likely loose it.

Great topic,

Gary