> I had a heck of a time with French, myself, and I've always done very well with languages. Latin, Spanish, Italian and German all came very easily for me, but French (and Russian, as well) did not. This strikes me as being odd, too, since French has so much in common with Latin, Spanish, and Italian.
>
> I think part of it has to do with the pronunciations of words. Speaking French words always triggers a bit of a gag reflex, for my part. I guess it's the emphasis on the back of the throat that does it.
>
I dropped both French and German at the end of the last school year. Thank goodness for that, is really all I can say. French, for me, wasn't too bad (in fact, oddly enough, I found French much easier than German) but I really hated learning German, almost entirely because of the teacher, whose reading exercises were always far too difficult (more so than the actual exam) and held the whole class in terror. One of my friends has taken German on to the next year, and he reports that the teacher acts exactly the same to him. Speaking French was never too much of a problem, but pronunciation can be tricky - I could never roll my r's, which made for some difficulty. Anyway, they're both gone now, and I have only the wonders of English Literature, History, Maths and Physics to contend with. Whoopee.

Si-"Rather enjoyed the guttural German sounds, though"-gi