I managed to learn a bit of Mandarin on our recent trip to China. It was a 23-day tour, so we had plenty of time to pick up some phrases, but in the end I only managed to remember a few. And then when we got to Macau and Hong Kong,we had to forget it all and learn different words, because they speak Cantonese there! We just couldn't do it. It was quite humorous (and frustrating at times) in Hong Kong...we kept forgetting, and would greet the hotel/restaurant staff in Mandarin and they were visibly offended and would speed off with an audible (and rather arrogant) huff.

But I was surprised that we were able to remember any words at all. I thought my brain wouldn't retain the info long enough, but was surprised and delighted to discover that it would. Maybe learning to speak Spanish over the past few years has helped keep those old brain cells working?

It's hard, though, I think, to learn a new language at our age, if we're not able to use it on a constant day-to-day basis.