Have you ever gone back to a language you’ve quit in the past?

[sporedandroid]

I have. Happened to me with Hebrew. I halfheartedly tried to learn Hebrew about four years ago. I found it too hard, so I quit. Last year I got interested in Hebrew again and roughly started studying a few months ago. I wonder if the same thing will happen to the Scandinavian languages. I still kind of like them, but I’m happy I’m only interested in Hebrew for now.

[Iversen]

You could say that I have relearned most of my current languages (and added some more along the way). I left the university with a degree in French and comparative literature in January 1981, and at that point I could express myself in something like ten languages - though not all at the same level. For instance I had followed courses in Romanian for three years, and the last two years where I was the only participant left I demanded that we only spoke Romanian during classes. And I sneeked into Italian classes without ever having registrered as a student of that language - but I couldn't do that with Spanish, because the Spanish department was totally overloaded with people who were fascinated by revolutionary movements in Latin America. I also followed a midlevel course in Old Norse, but never learned to speak Icelandic - I did learn to read Latin, but it wasn't supposed to be used as an active language at that point.

But then reality hit me with a vengeance when I had to look for a job. I discovered that it wasn't easy to get something at the level I expected - partly because most university teachers were fairly young and probably not keen on leaving their positions soon. Then I deliberately dropped all involvement with languages and instead I took most of an academical exam in economics and worked in a couple of time limited jobs, but it was a modest computer course that finally through some fortuitous circumstances landed me a permanent job around mid 1986. And then I just stayed with that job without having to speculate about other job possibilities. Actually I worked with computers in public service from 1986 to the end of 2015, andt in all that time my language skills withered away until I barely could speak more than three, maybe four foreign languages: English, German and French - and Spanish at a practical touristical level, but not more than that.

In 2006 I had planned to visit Romania and Moldova, and by some freek accident I stumpled over HTLAL, where I got impressed by the skill level some of the participants (not least prof.Argüelles), and then I decided to start relearning my lost languages and maybe add a few more. And I think that I have succeded since I now have done monolingual trips in 11½ language (the half one is Esperanto, where my trips have been in Esperanto AND a local language outside the congress venues), and I can read at least in twice that number - and with the help of a dictionary and my green grammar sheets I can also write in those frail weaklings.

During my resussicitation work I have noticed a few things about relearning things. One tip is to start the relearning process with exactly the same materials you used to learn a language in the first place. Another is that I personally learn vocabulary far faster through intensive use of wordlists than from extensive activities - so I have come to the conclusion that both intensive and extensive activities are necessary, but the former are where you learn concrete things, and the second ones are where you learn to use those concrete things. Of course that isn't the whole truth, since I do remember some things from TV programs and sci mags, but those things are mostly vocabulary about a specific topic (like dinosaur names), not the mass of small grey words that constitute the fabric of a language. If I'm too interested in a subject I don't read or listen for knowledge about languages - what I do is that I collect new captivating information about the topic in question, and then I don't care about the language.

And finally I have learned that languages may compete for your time, but once you are over the newbee level you don't have to fear that they mingle. If I don't know a word in for instance Spanish, it is logical to assume that you can use an adapted form of a Portuguese one until you have had time to find out what the Spaniards actually say. The result may appear as contamination, but it really just is a temporary hack in a concrete situation - not something that undermine the sense of identity of any of the languages involved.

[rdearman]

I quit French every other day. Does that count?

[Iversen]

I quit my bed at least once every 24 hours. But I still retain my skills in using it.

[insight]

Actually, yes. Before I started learning Russian again last September, I had already tried learning it on my own several times - unsuccessfully - by using Duolingo and a Russian Course (book). I think that one of the things that stopped me from continuing learning it before is mainly the fact that I didn't think it was possible for me to learn this language. However, in September I started taking classes with a teacher and, as a result, I started feeling that learning this language was actually possible, and this helped me feeling more motivated and staying consistent. Now I think I found what works for me and started loving the whole language-learning process, so I am definitely not going to quit this language again.

Also, I "quit" Spanish and French after learning them in high school and never using them after graduation, but I am definitely planning to relearn them as soon as I feel more comfortable with my Russian level.

[Adrianslont]

I quit my bed at least once every 24 hours. But I still retain my skills in using it.

That’s not really so much quitting anything - it’s more like adhering to an exercise program, one sit up a day!

To answer OP’s question - yes, I have, 2.

Work, post graduate study and children got in my way. I am now back to language learning and don’t plan on quitting again (children grew up, I got more disciplined, i didn’t need more study for work and finally I retired.)

[tiia]

In my case it's Spanish. Learned it for 3 years in school, forgot everything and restarted 6 years later from the very beginning. Of course it was a bit easier for me as there were still some associations left what a word could mean and I had also had 4 years of Latin before those 3 years of Spanish. But this advantage didn't last too long. The main difference was probably that I had actually motivation to learn Spanish, and we spoke mainly Spanish in the courses I took. I definitely got beyond the level I had reached in school.

[NoManches]

Took Spanish in high school for about 3 semesters. Hated it. "Quit" as soon as I graduated. Years later in the military we somehow were eligible to use Rosetta Stone for free. Tried Arabic and quit after a day. Went back to Spanish. Quit again after a few days.

A few years later I tried Spanish again. Haven't quite in about 6 years.

[golyplot]

I suppose it depends on how you define quit. But I think the strongest case is German. I took it for 4 years in middle and high school, but struggled and gave up. Then I took it for two semesters in college to fulfill the humanities requirement. Then I discovered Duolingo and the polyglot community and became interested in language learning.

I've studied French and Spanish off and on, but I don't think that counts, since I never thought I was quitting for good. The only language I truly gave up on in recent years is ASL, and it remains to be seen whether I will ever have the opportunity to start learning that again.

[MrPenguin]

I started learning Japanese back in 2008. Come fall 2009, after a loss of hours upon hours of work making kanji flashcards, caused by a failure to keep backups of my SuperMemo collection, I completely gave up on learning the language. Though I hesitate to use the word "rage quit", as there wasn't much rage or anger involved, it may still be apt in this case. "Frustration-quit" just doesn't have the same nice ring to it. At the time, I didn't have anything in particular I wanted to learn the language for, aside from an idea that it would be great to read manga in the original language. Still, all the manga I was reading got very quick English translations, so dropping the language wasn't a major loss.

Then come 2018, when I discovered Japanese light novels and web novels, where translations are usually slow, of bad quality, incomplete etc., and the best you can hope for with most novels is a taste of their first few chapters, and the fan translations are always hanging by a thread due to a lack of manpower. This, along with a desire to actually see the end of a few series I've come to enjoy a lot, has rekindled my motivation to learn the language, and I'm now further along than I ever was a decade ago, and while my progress is slow, I'm fairly confident I'll reach my goal eventually (assuming life doesn't throw a spanner in the works).