Mail in ballot.

I learned Schoolboy French as a kid, then re-learned all of it living in Northern France.

I've been told that I speak it with a local accent from Aisne (not surprising I guess) & use several words, phrases & intonations of the "dead" language of "Picard". Again hardly surprising.

"Picard (/ˈpɪkɑːrd/ PIH-kard,^[4] also US: /pɪˈkɑːrd, ˈpɪkərd/ pih-KARD, PIH-kərd,^[5][6] French: [pikaʁ] ^ⓘ) is a langue d'oïl of the Romance language family spoken in the northernmost of France and parts of Hainaut province in Belgium. Administratively, this area is divided between the French Hauts-de-France region and the Belgian Wallonia along the border between both countries due to its traditional core being the districts of Tournai and Mons (Walloon Picardy).

The language or dialect is referred to by different names, as residents of Picardy call it simply Picard, but in the more populated region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais it is called Ch'ti or Ch'timi (sometimes written as Chti or Chtimi). This is the area that makes up Romance Flanders, around the metropolis of Lille and Douai, and northeast Artois around Béthune and Lens. Picard is also named Rouchi around Valenciennes, Roubaignot around Roubaix, or simply patois in general French.

In 1998, Picard native speakers amounted to 700,000 individuals, the vast majority of whom were elderly people (aged 65 and over).^[7] Since its daily use had drastically declined, Picard was declared by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) a "severely endangered language".^[8] However, as of 2023, the Picard language was listed as “vulnerable” by UNESCO"

Oh yes I've done that too.

But only if my atrociously mangled Frengilsh didn't warn them off. as I'd spoken it fluently the day before.

when i was in high school they offered some foreign language , but id already been jaded by my grandparents forbidding's , it was a time when the war was fresh and i sorta understood their position because id been exposed to the neighbors comments about buying american and "cheap japanese imports" but i also had had a fake uncle and aunt - he was one of the americans that had been in japan after the war setting up their production facilities , he brought home a war bride , he worked for my father as a production engineer , so as confusing as it all was to a kid growing up and later a high scxhool student , i never learned a foreign language , a shortcoming to be sure ....

both of my kids did , and my wife knows some japanese from when she was growing up there durring VN , i wish i had but at this point in life im not inclined