Languages you have forgotten

General discussion about learning languages
Thunter
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Languages you have forgotten

Postby Thunter » Fri Dec 16, 2016 10:47 pm

Hi,
recently I'm thinking a lot about keeping languages alive and I'm interested in your story how you have forgotten a certain language and if you regret it. What could you have done better?

Today I met an Italian who went with 16 to Canada. However he barly spoke Italian for some decades and can't speak fluently anymore.

Thank you in advance
Last edited by Thunter on Fri Dec 16, 2016 11:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Languages you have forgotten

Postby Theodisce » Fri Dec 16, 2016 10:57 pm

I find it very surprising that someone would forget (stop being fluent in) a language they spoke until the age of 16. Other than that, my written Latin has probably became rusty over the last few years as I haven't been using it that way since I've finished my studies (which does not necessarily mean I couldn't refresh it provided I had the motivation to do it).
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Postby Sol » Sat Dec 24, 2016 5:26 pm

It is weird how he lost the ability to speak Italian fluently after speaking it for 16 years, but if he had 0 contact with the language for decades I can believe it.

My dad studied in Russia for a few years (only about 2 or 3 I think) 30 years ago and still remembers it even though he gets no practice.

I think it's near impossible to completely forget a native language. Maybe languages you studied only for a short while, though they tend to come back fast if you start them up again.
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Re: Languages you have forgotten

Postby lingua » Sat Dec 24, 2016 7:05 pm

I studied German for about three years many years ago and then didn't use it for a long time. I've gone back to it a couple of different times over the years and it returns to me easily. My mother lived in Germany for a few years and was somewhat fluent but then moved back to the US and stopped speaking though she is still able to read it. I imagine that if the Italian went back to Italy it would come back to them fairly quickly.
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Re: Languages you have forgotten

Postby aokoye » Sat Dec 24, 2016 9:44 pm

I had a friend who moved from Finland to the US when she was 10 or so and something very similar happened to her. She was able to speak a bit but it was very difficult for her all things considered.

She ended up going back for grad school and took some academic Finnish classes because she had next to no academic vocab when she left and didn't gain any when she was in the US. She ended up being fine but she was very anxious about it.
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Re: Languages you have forgotten

Postby Xenops » Sat Dec 24, 2016 10:18 pm

I know I've forgotten quite a bit of Spanish (I'm guessing at my best I was at B2), but I haven't made the effort to keep it, either. There's so many other languages to learn! :D
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Re: Languages you have forgotten

Postby Ani » Thu Dec 29, 2016 8:17 am

I was a non-fluent speaker but had pretty total comprehension of Italian when I was a child. I stopped speaking deliberately in my early teens because I was so shy and embarrassed. My comprehension was good until late teens but now I have forgotten all of it. Completely all of it .. Except maybe prepositions.. But it's so bad my children asked me how to say thank you and you're welcome in Italian and I had to really rack my brain.

When you say what could I have done better... Not have had depression followed by crippling anxiety as a teen :)

It is a disappointing loss but not overly so. Obviously I haven't cared enough to actually DO anything about it. I estimate that I could get back to my previous level with about 6 months of study, but I continually make other choices.
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Re: Languages you have forgotten

Postby tiia » Thu Dec 29, 2016 11:16 am

Latin. I had learned it four years in school. I had no real interest in the language itself nor did I have any use for it. The stories we translated and the culture of ancient Romans were more interesting. I don't regret forgetting it, though it feels strange when I look at my old course books.

I had had almost forgotten Spanish except for very few sentences. I thought for some time that it's a pity I learned it for three years and couldn't use it. Sometimes I even thought it would have been better to continue with it after school, mainly when I had more contact with Spanish speaking natives during my exchange. But most of the time I simply didn't care.
Six years after school I suddenly had found motivation and decided that I really want to learn it again in order to speak it. - Something I had never been able to do.
So yes, I obviously regretted it too much, because there was never a question like "Do I want to learn a new language? And if so, which one?" It was "Spanish a second time, yes or no?"
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Re:

Postby arthaey » Sat Dec 31, 2016 7:25 pm

Sol wrote:I think it's near impossible to completely forget a native language.

While I agree that's is very unusual, it is sadly possible.

I know of an older guy who migrated from China to Canada as a kid. This was back before the internet or cheap long distance phone calls, so he says he had no contact with the family members left behind. He stopped having any contact with his native language (a minority one), either.

He says that now he can't understand anything in it. Decades and decades with no usage will do that sometimes.
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Re: Re:

Postby Sol » Sun Jan 01, 2017 1:13 pm

arthaey wrote:
Sol wrote:I think it's near impossible to completely forget a native language.

While I agree that's is very unusual, it is sadly possible.

I know of an older guy who migrated from China to Canada as a kid. This was back before the internet or cheap long distance phone calls, so he says he had no contact with the family members left behind. He stopped having any contact with his native language (a minority one), either.

He says that now he can't understand anything in it. Decades and decades with no usage will do that sometimes.


Oh that's sad :( Okay then I guess it is possible, if there is no contact. My biggest worry is moving far away from my family and forgetting Bulgarian. I have near perfect Bulgarian right now despite not living there since age 5, but my accent does worsen if I don't speak it for long, and going back to Bulgarian reminds me I'm not at a 100% level. It makes me really sad as I will eventually move away, and even if I read books or talk in my language, it won't be constant like now and I will forget some.
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