As I have posted before,when my father came to the US in 1913 he was a Soccer player and played in the Immigrant Soccer League in NY.Players were from many different European countries and all spoke their native language.My father learned bits of several.He was also working in a factory where most of the employees were Italian and eventually became fluent in several languages.His best friend ,my godfather was Italian and I learned a lot about Italy at a very young age.