My passion started at school where the languages I was taught – French, English, and Latin – had long lasting consequences on my life. At 17, I met a brilliant and attractive French teenager who is now my wife; English would prove useful for reading and writing in medicine; and Latin opened my eyes to the world of words. One week before my 13th birthday, I used my new Christmas voice-recorder to register word lists from our school manual: rosa – die Rose; insula – die Insel; bestia – das Tier. For several weeks thereafter, I would lie in bed at night and listen to the recordings.
