A language learners’ forum

I spent most of my life living in my country of origin. While studying and working there, I used to devote about 30-40 hours a week to language learning, mostly by input and sometimes by active use. However, now I'm living abroad. My foreign language input and output equals roughly to 35-45 hours a week. Much of this is done at the work place, but not all. I still enjoy languages outside the work context. However, I feel a much greater need to listen and read materials in my own language now than I used to while living in my home country.

Now the question to those of you who have experience of living abroad more than few months: do you share this experience or maybe it's just me?

I've spent more than 20 years living outside of my country of origin, and I hardly ever speak my native language except when I am there on vacation. At work I use English and French, at home we speak Spanish. In addition I dabble in quite a few other langauges. I am perfectly happy with this, but I can tell you that sometimes I feel an urgent need to read a book, listen to the radio or watch a TV show in Norwegian. Somehow it is like I give my brain a vacation . It is difficult to explain, but even compared to English, which I have been using at work every day for over 20 years, doing something in my native tongue probably triggers some different neurological processes in the brain. So I can totally understand that you feel that need to use your own language when living in another language environment.

Just to add: I don't see any decline in my ability to use my native tongue after 20 years, but I do notice that I probably speak a somewhat old-fashioned Norwegian compared to my younger compatriots. From time to time I discover words and expressions which have been integrated into the language during these years, and which I would never use.

And finally, when it comes to professional terminology, I feel much more comfortable giving a presentation about my job in English or French than in Norwegian. i sometimes discover I lack the Norwegian words for certain concepts.

It's hard to say. I've lived in Norway for 16 years, but my native language is English and that's kind of hard to get away from even if you wanted to. I mean English is all over, at least here in Norway, and especially on the Internet I find it hard to get away from. However, I think my English has suffered a bit because I mostly use it online and for watching TV. I am starting to feel the need to do something a little more intellectual before my English deteriorates even more, so I'm thinking of doing more reading.

I don't know how I would feel about being away from my native country if my language were less common. I'm never homesick, but maybe I would be if I didn't have any contact with my native language.