... не имела обыкновение ___часто на них говорить тогда. (хотя бы так)

it’s a full-time job - you have to put as much work into fixing the original Russian as to translating it!

Точно(((

"Не имела обыкновения часто говорить " - это скорее о привычке или склонности, как "не имела обыкновения много болтать языком". Мне думается, что здесь имеется в виду "не приходилось тогда часто говорить" на этих языках.

And Navruza did her best to make the translation look as crappy as the original 😓

Anna, your translation isn’t quite correct. The learning came before the THEN, so the past perfect is in order. Also, LEARNT and WHILST sound kind of Shakespearean.

Well I am confused here. For instance, if I want to say: I cooked the dinner, then I ate, then I washed the dishes. It doesn’t require the perfect. Why would you use in the sentence: I leant the language but then I didn’t use it?
Yep, too much Shakespeare in my life. Sorry ;)

Because THEN has two meanings in English: (1) a потом... (2) тогда(, когда...). Meaning 2 is a point in the past, and the speaker in this post learned French and German BEFORE that point and didn’t use it much AT that point.

Ok noted thank you

Also, in usage (1), it’s not stressed; in usage (2) it is.