I took 3 years of one language and 2 of another in high school. But on the one European trip, I couldn’t form a sentence to save my life.
Mais oui.
Get’s the ladies…hot.
I took three years of Spanish in high school, then worked in restaurants for fifteen years. You betcha I used it, although my spoken Spanish now is far less formal than it was originally!
Oh, and I can say various cuss words in at least (counting on fingers) 7 languages. That comes in handy when you drop something on your foot and there’s a child in the room.
Using them right now.
All the time. I’ve used them for a living during large chunks of my career (mostly Spanish and Russian), and even though they aren’t the main part of my job now, they still come in handy at least several times a week. Even the language I only know half-assed (French) comes in handy at the most unexpected times, like making hash of december today in GD.
Spanish (7 years) – Yes.
French and German (4 months and 2 years, respectively) – Yes, but the people I’ve used them on may well have wished I hadn’t 
Czech (1 year) – No.
I took around 3 years of French during my pre-college years. Apart from the Spanish I got from Sesame Street, it was the first foreign language I was exposed to, due to a student teacher in kindergarten.
While in college, I went on a choir tour to Europe. One day in Prague, we had some free time. I was with a group of about 4 or 5, and we got hungry. Found a pizza stand. Dude at the counter started speaking Czech, which, of course, none of us spoke. He understood, and said “Sprechen zie Deutsch?” Again, nope. He scratched his head and said, “Parlez-vous francais?”
I got all excited! “Je parle un peu francais!”
He explained the options for toppings to me, I translated back and forth, negotiating the deal.
Unfortunately, I was unable to convince him that I was perfectly fine drinking a Coke that was “chaud”. Had to make due with a 7-Up.
I think that’s the only time in my life where French has actually been useful.
lets see, my foreign language lessons were for ENGLISH …
hm …
what a freaking waste of time, who speaks English anyway.
Je n’ai pas de choix. Si je veux travailler en Quebec, la francais est necessaire!
So in other words, yes. 
I had to go to Germany to use my german. Out of the two other language choices at my high school (french and spanish), it was by far the most useless. I work in sales, so spanish would come in handy all of the time. French would have been handy that time when I was 16 or 17 and ended up stuck in a room for a couple of hours with a bunch of hot French high school students who didn’t speak a word of of english.
Well lets see. I got forced into taking a foreign language in college.(Well, my school required it so I got stuck in it for most of my time there.) The only time I ever used it was to ask an operator at another company to connect me to some engineer.(He spoke enough english but didn’t know enough about his company’s product to be that much of a help.) So for all the time I absolutely wasted in French I can’t say I was really able to use any of it after college.(Which is how I prefer it. It still gets me though. The school’s handbook states that it’s really important to be fluent in a foreign language yet the school’s actions just demonstrate for anybody who thinks about it they do not believe this. It justs proves to me they think of it as a colossal waste of time for most students. I just wish they were more honest about it. My only guess is the faculty had to put up when they were going to school so now they make the undergrads suffer like they did in their younger days. )
I was in Noumea, New Caledonia for a day and overwhelmed and excited by the exposure, (for the first time) to a non-English speaking culture. I’d learnt about two years of French in high school, and I found to my pleasant surprise that I could read things quite well. However, I suffered stage fright, and barely opened my mouth the whole time. I think the only time I spoke was when I went into a book store and the woman behind the counter said “Bonjour.”
I scrabbled in shock for some French to speak back at her and eventually shyly said “Salut.” She laughed, because I was obviously nervous, and then I wondered if I had been too familiar with her.
But it was fun.
Took an intensive course in german (6 months), before eventually ending up there. So yeah, I did get to use it… on the flip side, my german now is very colloquial - if I were to give a german language test, I wouldn’t do too well!
Same goes for my brother… he took basic french lessons, ended up in the french side of switzerland, has been working in restaurants and hotels, and now speaks fluent french… but if he were to give a language test, he wouldn’t do too well either…
But we’re both very fluent in our respective languages… so who cares!!
The pride I felt when we asked the security guard at the supermarket " where are the toliets please?" when we were in Germany, and he understood!
So, yes. 
More times than I can count. I’ve used Spanish so often, and in so many places (including with a shirt salesman at the Leaning Tower of Pisa - because my Italian wasn’t good enough to communicate what I wanted to say and using a dictionary would have been too time-consuming)…and German a few times in Germany and Switzerland…and Italian, for daily basics, for the 4 months I lived in Italy.
So, yes for me too.
I took Spanish through all of high school, and I could speak it pretty well. On a trip to Mexico when I was 19, I chatted with a bunch of people, no problem.
The day after we got back from Mexico, I went to Israel (my parents are great planners). I had been studying Hebrew for a couple years at that point, but I found that I couldn’t formulate a sentence to save my life. Worse, I couldn’t understand a single word anyone said. Fortunately, I was enrolled in an intensive Hebrew study program (25 hours a week), and when I finished that, I had six hours of Hebrew a week for the next nine months. So yes, those lessons helped a great deal. By the time I left Israel, I could have an average conversation with no problems. I even did my airport interrogation entirely in Hebrew, and the interrogator complimented me on my excellent Hebrew. A shining moment in my language history.
Of course, now I can’t speak Spanish.
yes, it comes in handy in my line of work. For example, I’m preparing for an upcoming court case that will be conducted entirely en français, including my oral argument.
My years of high school French stand me in good stead when ordering at my favorite French restaurants. It also made reading Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables” much more entertaining. Plus more than one girlfriend has gotten rather turned on when spoken to en Français.
The Danish I was taught during childhood is very useful whenever I go to Denmark. You cannot imagine how much fun it is to blather on with shopkeepers in Danish and then, as you walk out the door, shout out, “Thanks a lot pal.” The astonished look on their face is priceless.
My restaurant Spanish has even evolved to the point where I was much more effective as a foreman on a full scale house restoration. We were able to hire all sorts of day laborers instead of just English speaking ones.
I took three years of Spanish in High School. I use it every day.
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Yes, mainly here at the SDMB - I live in Argentina
Nowadays speaking English, or understanding it at least, is excluding for most major jobs around here.
I can’t say I write alright, but I limit myself to easy posts like this one