<p>DavidAlex: When I had first started learning Portuguese, I was in a bar in Rio had a couple of beers and my German came back better than it had been in 10 years. My German friend said "my god, you speak good German." It was really weird because something about the fact that I was trying to learn a new language strangely activated the German. It wasn't just the beer. I had been in similar situations (without learning a new language as a backdrop) in the intervening 10 years. This was something new. Weird.</p>