I'm a native New Yorker (born and raised in NYC) who grew up with a multilingual extended family: a research scientist (astrophysics) and associate university professor by profession, but I was also a published film essayist for several years until I abandoned it to pursue other interests (mainly running, photography and traveling). So even though my background is in Mechanical Engineering (BS) and Applied Physics (PhD), I am also a creative as well as a technical writer. I'm learning languages to avoid reading subtitles and to better engage with other people and cultures. I don't subscribe to the "fluent in X months" marketing hype that reduces to fluency to rudimentary communication. I'm interested in learning the nuances of expression, and that only comes from knowing a language deeply. Ephemera: http://www.kinoculture.com