People always ask me about the languages I speak. It's important to note that I learned each language in a different way.

English is my first language and mother tongue and I learned it as a child. My K-12 education was completely in English and I studied in an American university.

Italian is the language of my mother, and I also learned it as a child. I later studied it in university. When I'm in Italy, I use it on a day-to-day basis.

I learned Spanish in part for two reasons. By one part, I was surrounded by it while I grew up in Miami. On the other part, I had cousins from my father's side that I speak to in Spanish. I became fluent in Spanish as a teenager, during a summer in Colombia. Although I never formally studied Spanish, I can speak it because I had ample opportunities to hear and speak it while growing up. I still speak it on an infrequent basis.

In middle school, I took two years of French, but forgot most of it. I later took two semesters of French in college. I don't have much of an opportunity to practice it recently, so I listen to RFI in the mornings to make up for it. Apparently it's good. The native French speakers that I meet say I speak it well.

While I lived in Munich, I studied German at the Volkshochschule(German Community College). I have a basic conversational level. When I have a bit more time, I will dedicate more time to this wonderfully complex language.