Svenghandi,
My GreatGrandmother and Grandfather are from England, they are registered in the Ellis Island manifests (I think that's what you call them). My Grandma, was one of 13 or 14 - she wasn't sure. She believes she was born in either 1900 or 1901, but when they finally got around to getting her a genuine birth certificate, I believe it said 1910. I'm a little fuzzy on those details, but there was something about that as I remember. There was no actual record of her birth, and no one could remember if there were two siblings before her or one. She remembers for sure a brother that died in his early teens, but possibly a child when she was younger. She raised 13 siblings. All of my Grandmothers brothers served in most of the major wars, married for life, none divorced, all had at least three children. The women that they married brought a variety of ethnicity to our family. Weddings were to say the least always a learning experience. There were Jewish weddings, High Mass Catholic weddings (omg how long was that?), Italian weddings - (in my humble opinion always the very most fun), and Greek weddings (another favorite).
The languages that were spoken were introduced either by the Uncles or the Aunties - I'm guessing mostly by the Aunties married into by the Brothers. The Pig Latin was a way for Mom and Grandma to speak without the little ones in the room knowing what they were saying because as we got older? When the women were in the room and someone would say Oy vey? The kids would start as children do saying "Oy vey" for everything and if certain rather undesirable words of Yiddish were explained and used to convey something in a conversation, which were understood amongst adults, but latched onto by kids? Well then you had 25 kids running around outside yelling that word and ten women inside trying not to laugh, and of course explain without explaining WHY you can't say that word, when Mommy was. Kapish? So I guess at the age of knowledge they started speaking Pig Latin which was a lot less easier to understand when spoken faster. Except for myself who LOVES languages. I would sit and listen and listen and when I finally figured it out? I felt like I was a genius.
I think everyone should have to take Latin. I log on to an on line Latin course ever now and then - but it's not the same as having a real -life Prof. and a class where you can get feed back. I'm taking Speed Spanish right now. Having a Learning Disability (LD) and trying to take a speed-language is a bit of a challenge but I'm down for it. I wish I knew exactly what my Learning Disability (LD) was - but I just don't retain anything. Not like I used to and for 46? That's a litle more than scary. Some days I'm glad I can remember my own name. I am very impressed that you are on your 4th year of Latin - it's extremely hard. Helpful with other languages for sure but WOW very impressive! Congrats.