Why do language skills go from good to bad to good again?

[sillygoose1]

Maybe some of you know what I mean or maybe it's a mental block of mine. But is there a reason why this would happen? If I'm talking with someone that I've always talked with then I'll forget common words that we've used a lot previously. Some days when I'm watching a TV show I notice that my comprehension wasn't as good as the week before and I start missing more things than what was usual.

I'd usually think that it's a plateau but the fact that my skills go from great to bad out of nowhere seems odd. Has anyone experienced this?

[emk]

I'd usually think that it's a plateau but the fact that my skills go from great to bad out of nowhere seems odd. Has anyone experienced this?

It's the bane of my life, I swear, despite having studied and used French for 10 years (as of this fall).

One day, I can explain to my wife what WebAssembly is, why it's important, how it's going to change the web, and what I'm doing professionally to prepare for this. No problem; the words are always there and everything flows.

Another evening, we have the local French parents over, and I'm trying to explain to one of them why Avatar is a great kid's TV series. I sound like an idiot. Or at least I feel like an idiot.

I have some control over this. If I read a novel in French, or listen to a podcast, then maybe sing along with some difficult songs, I can increase the chances I'll be at the top of my game. But even then, there are no guarantees. Similarly, if I spend my entire day doing tricky coding in English, my French is often useless for anything other than casual, practical stuff. But sometimes, I nonetheless manage to say something intelligent.

Fatigue certainly plays a role. Whether my internal monologue is currently in French plays a role. Other factors affect it—if I'm in Montréal, I may take a little while to warm up, then I'll have a good day or two, and then my brain will go on strike. I don't understand it. It annoys me. :-/

[Dylan95]

I'm asking myself the same question right now. Just as I'm about to have an extremely important interview in Russian, my Russian skills seem to have dropped out of nowhere. Interestingly enough, I only notice this drop in my spoken Russian. I'm still writing with few errors, but whenever I speak I seem to make these stupid little mistakes in my conjugations or declensions. Other times I construct embarrassingly awkward sentences.

I think it depends on my level of composure and concentration. When I'm stressed out, I'm just not very sharp.

[Brun Ugle]

I’ve lived 18 years in Norway. I studied economics here. I’ve worked for the customs agency, the tax department and a private auditing company. Obviously, I’ve had to use Norwegian at a fairly sophisticated level and am capable of doing so. However, some days I can barely construct a coherent sentence, my pronunciation gets really bad, and I make all kinds of mistakes. Of course, I also have days when I knock things over and drop everything I pick up. It’s just one of those things. There are good days and bad days. Sometimes they might even be good weeks and bad weeks. I don’t know if it ever ends, but I’m starting to think it doesn’t.

At a lower level, when I’m still learning, I find that learning something new can displace all the old stuff. It’s like I had everything nicely organized in my brain and putting something new in there threw off the entire system. It’s temporary, but it can be very frustrating because it feels like you’re going backwards.