The thing is, I hadn't learned some of those words at all. They simply weren't part of my vocabulary, and neither was the grammar.

It was only 7th grade Spanish. I still know my days of the week, a few simple phrases, I can read it well (without knowing the words), and I can insult your girlfriend, but none of my experiences can account for what actually happened. I simply never got to that level in the one year of language that I took. I switched to Russian in high school and probably should have stuck with Spanish.