Being a native English speaker, as much as I am fascinated by different languages, I've had little opportunity to use them. German is actually the one I know the most, as this was the language my school taught, plus my grandmother was German, so I visited 3 times. My grasp of German grammar is atrocious, however, and I am now incredibly rusty because I've had no opportunity to practice it since I finished college. I should have tried practising it with my grandmother more, but she could get quite forceful, so that could have strained our relationship.
I loved languages when I was younger and even did some Spanish, which was crammed into such a short time frame I didn't retain much of it at all. I really love that you can start recognising words from the different languages, so some Spanish words were similar to English ones and some similar to German. Like you I also like the history of where the words of our own language have come from and for English that's a lot of other languages.
My daughter did rhythmic gymnastics with a Ukrainian coach for a while and became attracted to the Russian language which she'd hear as the coach would speak to the Russian and Ukrainian students. She started trying to learn it, but I don't think she kept it up.
Maybe a trip to Germany is in order :) You know, it's interesting, but everyone I've met whose ancestors came from a different place (which is mostly everybody, isn't it?) speak that language, or had it spoken in their home. My own great-grandmother was from Croatia, yet no one in my family knows an ounce. It seems a shame these languages peter out.
That's wonderful! I think it's super beneficial even to come into contact with a different alphabet and culture, and so on. Does she still do rhythmic gymnastics?
We are actually lucky to know any German, because it didn't get taught to us at all by my grandmother. I suspect it's because she came to England so soon after the war, so it may not have looked the best to be teaching her children this former enemy's language. Instead we went to a Steiner school and learnt it there.
My daughter is at university and studying all hours now, so no longer does rhythmic. She can't afford the fees or the time.