@Darielle
I, too, had to learn Old English and Middle English for my MA translation of the poem "The Pearl" The OE so I could find how certain words and phrases migrated into ME. It was tedious and I've forgotten most of it even as we speak. I can still read ME, and I suppose OE would come back faster than when I first learned it, but it's buried deep in my minds filing system at the moment.
In addition, I do wish I were an editor. I love language and am fairly good at it....at least my English degrees say so..LOL. I'm working on about 5 novels (2 done) in a series and will probably put the first out there this summer. I've completely re-written it three times and each time it's gotten better. Now I'm just letting it stew before doing a final edit. Then we'll see.
@crackie I did have a foreign language requirement in HS. 5 colleges, and 2 universities. I never took a course but they passed me anyway. All the languages I know I've taught myself, usually because I just wanted to know the language. I'm working on Korean at the moment.
Now, here's something for the rest of you. Most languages are taught via conversations, in small, incremental steps. And they are taught via the written word. Almost all languages courses follow this method. Another method, I'm trying with Korean is the oral method. It should take about a year of consistent work to get there. Here's how it goes: Turn on Netflix and listen to the language you wish to learn. That's pretty much it. If you want the written component, once you begin understanding the dialogue, you can then slowly learn the phonics and their representative symbols. This, for me, happened after a couple months.
Don't worry that you don't understand a thing at first. Keep going. Pay attention to the visual ques. When people meet they greet eqch other....what's that sound like? Listen to the same show until you can at least follow the plot and have a pretty good idea of what people's attitudes toward each other are -- and how they address each other. Again, listen to the same show over and over. It took me about six months to get enough that I can now turn to other shows and if not follow precisely along, at least follow what's going on and who the good guys and bad guys might be.
It's a different method, that it seems to work on the "immersion" principle.
AJ