Can it still be November ?

At around this time of the month, I always get slightly desperate for content. I have a number of ideas for extremely long posts sharing my thoughts on important matters but what I really want this evening is a very short post which will allow me to finish up rapidly and return to sit by the fire and peruse today’s paper.

I had a long day. My Ukrainian lesson, normally on a Wednesday morning, was this morning before work. I make very slow and limited progress, I fear, but we soldier on. The difference between cold and hungry in Ukrainian is obvious to the native speaker but presents me with almost insurmountable difficulties. You will appreciate that after all this time I would like to be better on these rather basic vocabulary items. I reflect, however, that I have never been to Ukraine and I do much better when I visit the country and use the language. When the war is over, I fully intend to visit. My teacher says there are actually loads of tourists in Kiev right now but they are braver than me.

I feel there are probably a lot of older people in Ukraine who speak no English so I would get a lot of practice. The Princess often says to me that I grew up in a golden age for language learning. It is true that when I was a teenager on holidays in France, you spoke French or you didn’t communicate at all. Now everyone on continental Europe wants to speak English and you have to be persistent to stop them doing so even when (very frustrating this), your knowledge of their language far exceeds their knowledge of English. Do you think it is true? Has the golden age of language learning (in Europe at least) gone?