She speaks Dutch, of course, her mother was German, so she spoke that with her mother. She learned French in school. Moved to the US in her 20’s and learned English, then moved to Mexico when her husband retired and immediately learned Spanish. She is fluent in 5 languages! I find that amazing!
Anyone is welcome to the Undead Thread. That is an impressive accomplishment. The relationships among the languages would have helped: Dutch and German are very similar. Dutch and English are very similar. And of course, French and Spanish are closely related.
I speak Spanish, but I can read French and Italian well enough to get the sense of a newspaper article, although out loud I have a ghastly accent.
My brother and I are very good at picking up enough of a language to get by, but our father was tone-deaf and always had to make do with gestures, a big smile, and his military uniform. I remember spending a long car trip trying teach him to say, “Dame dos cervezas, por favor,” “Please give me two beers,” but it was hopeless.