Maybe you haven't seen Cola Turka advertisements yet?

http://caliptrix.ueuo.com/news.php?readmore=120

Thanks for that it is brilliant and if only that's all it took to be able to speak Turkish fluently!!Then again after I have drank vodka I seem to speak Russian very fluently!!!

Actually there is some truth to learning/speaking a language under the influence. When I was in university, I was sent for 6 months with 10 others on a "language experiment" to Puerto Rico. We, (complete non-speakers of Spanish) attended 6 hours daily of instruction about the Spanish language. (vocab, tenses, pronunciation etc...). After three months of minimal progress, our three professors made a decision. At 8am when we arrived to class they told us to go back to our dorms, put on our swim suits, and prepare for a day at the beach. Actually they said, all classes will now be held at the beach. They drove us there, and opened the trunk of the three cars, and fed us "rum punch" from 10 am until.... 6 pm. We then spent the evening at the beach bars. There was only one rule. "NO ENGLISH". They said we would have class like this every day as long as we didn't speak English. In two weeks we were conversational with our three months of vocabulary.

We were too shy to speak Spanish without the alcohol, and with it... we didn't care what mistakes we made!

Ahh yes Christine, that brings back memories of a trip I made to France once.

I was visiting a French friend in Macon. Her family house was right in the middle of the Macon vineyards. After dinner, my friend and her mother had to go out for an hour or two, and I was in the awkward position of being left to "talk" with her father who could speak as little English as I could French. We sat outside on the terrace in silence, until he left and came back with a bottle of, what looked to me like, white spirit ! It turned out to be made from the husks of the grapes (and was illegal) ! We started drinking and soon found ourselves able to communicate - dont ask me how (sign language, a mix of languages, I can't remember)!!! When my friend and her mother returned they found us crying with laughter at eachothers 'jokes' and firm friends.

The rest of the night is a blur but by breakfast we were silent again, unable to communicate,and remained so for the rest of my stay ! Bizarre but true

By the way; the first one is here:

http://caliptrix.ueuo.com/news.php?readmore=48

aaahhh aenigma,

I know it too well. I think that is how Omer and I first fell in love. On the sailboat, neither of us said a word for two days, despite our desire. Then one night the vodka was pured amongst the crew and participants, and we spoke. Not only spoke, but laughed, talked, shared etc.... (how???)

when morning came, we were a bit shy again, but our adventurous personalities and a dictionary made all well again. We spent the next few days alone together "figuring it out" (without alcohol), and now- we study furiously to meet in December...

funny though how alcohol can take away fear of speaking.