Hey Deb, don't feel bad. By the time I was 15 years old I could communicate real well with all of the local Mexican farm workers. I had lots of Spanish speaking friends my age. I spoke a lot more Spanish then they did English and did a lot of translating for their parents and between them and the people they worked for.
I, and they, signed up for Spanish class in High School. We figured it would be easy. We all flunked. None of us had ever worried about verb conjugation or had any idea what Castilian Spanish involved. We used to get into discussions (arguments) with the Teacher who couldn't communicate very well with people who hadn't learned it in school. After pointing out her errors, we still flunked. None of our parents, or us, really understood that we were supposed to be trying to learn a foreign language.
Many years later, I can still speak it somewhat but can no longer understand when it is spoken to me.
