You don't forget what you "acquired."

50 years ago, I fancied myself an adventurer and took several trekking trips from my home in America to Peru and Patagonia and Venezuela. My friends and I always found local guys willing to share the trail and ensure smooth relations with folks we met along the way. I didn't know Spanish, but I had a phrase book and a dictionary. I learned a lot from my companions and the people I met on those trips. In that first bloom of language learning, I thought, "This stuff is easy. I'll be fluent in no time."

So when I came home, I bought a book and studied grammar for about a month until I burned out. This sequence happened several times. Immerse in country, grind at home, fail. I count 14 Spanish textbooks on my shelf. All promise rapid achievements. 30 days. A couple of months. To me, these books represent half a century of failure.

Now, at 81, I'm starting my fourth month of DS. I gave myself 150 hours and have racked up 300 hours of CI. I'm enjoying this journey. The roadmap seems an accurate measure of my current abilities, and it gives me confidence in blundering ahead. And I find this sub terrific. People here acknowledge their doubts and share their triumphs. I turn to these pages every time I think, "Dang, I suck at this." It's inspiring to know that we all feel that way at times. 

And here's an inspiring thing I've recently learned. You don't forget stuff you've "acquired."  About 20 hours into watching comprehensible videos, I felt all that stuff I "acquired" on the trail 50 years ago come flooding back. I hadn't used what Spanish I knew in decades. And yet there it was, all of it, just waiting for me.