What is/are your native language(s)?
Flemish/Dutch
What language(s) did you learn? Why?
Latin, English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Arabian, and a little bit of Norwegian.
French is given in school from the age of 10 as it is the second language in our country, English I learned from the TV and later in school coz it was an international language.
I studied Latin-Modern Languages in school coz my family has a history of being good at languages and I sucked at math. So German and Latin were part of my high school schedule.
I went to Russia for a year coz I was sick of Western-European languages, and wanted a real challenge. After that I got my masters in English-Russian translation. During that education we had the opportunity to take on a third language, and I tried out Arabian for a year. Also, because I went to Russia, I was ahead of my class in the first year of Russian, so for kicks, I took some classes in Spanish for a year.
And lastly, my SO is Norwegian, and I lived there for 3 months.
I enjoy collecting languages, so...
How useful is a second/third/whatever language to you generally? On a daily basis?
English I use everyday, as I speak it with my SO. Also, in our country you don't find a decent job without speaking at least some English and French, so very handy, yes.
What aspects of the language did you find difficult? What did you find easy?
Western European languages are a bitch on the application of grammar, exceptions and idioms. Apparently, I have a knack though for speaking languages almost without an audible accent (unless I'm tired). I enjoy the 'melody' of a language. And I can rant my head off in any language. Writing however...
About how long did it take for you to feel comfortable speaking in that language?
Euuuhm. The only one I'm truly comfortable in, is English. I was always quite comfortable in it, but as a kid you don't realize that you're not fluent. As an adult however...
Was there ever a time you 'chickened out' because you were not confident in your ability to speak properly?
Yup, I do that constantly with French...and Russian, not to mention the ones that I just picked up here and there.