Losing your language.

[Skyve]

So I've been living in a English-speaking province for about 3 years now. I come(was born) from a French-speaking province thus making it my first language, I speak it everyday with my family.

I've felt that over the years, I might of possibly been losing a bit of my french. I mean, in school I do really well in French (97%+) because the assignments are piss easy compared to my level of french. But when it comes to talking, I feel that my vocabulary could be much better. Guess it just worries me a bit. I sometime even catch myself having thoughs in english, but I assume it's because I think about school work, which is all in english.

Have you guys ever been into that kind of situation?.

[piootr]

I used to speak exclusively Polish with my family, because it was the first language taught to me. As I learned more and more English, and that became the only language I spoke, my Polish degraded significantly. I always notice that words that I should know, or grammar that I should be getting correct comes out awkward. If I were suddenly dropped off in the middle of Poland, I could survive, but my grammatical skills in the language are terrible.

[asusi]

I do, i have same issue, but what i always do is read + listen to my language music it works verry well..

[Vaya]

When I'm thinking about something my thoughts are in English for the most of the time.
What I've nearly lost is my Accent, I don't speak Egyptian Arabic as much as I speak Palestinian Arabic, but that's not a problem, Palestinian accent is smexy xD

[Ganja]

I have the same problem, I used to be able to speak Spanish well, I even did well in Spanish on high school because like you said they were easy assignments but lately I have been losing a lot of my vocabulary and find myself speaking more and more English to my parents. I am even trying to find ways to avoid my relatives who only speak Spanish because I am afraid that they might think I'm slow

[Skyve]

Yeah so far I still speak only french to my parents (and my friends in Quebec over Skype), and don't think it'll ever change (speaking in english with them would feel so akward). Might get back to reading books, used to be a great reader

[Crowley]

I lived in Germany and spoke the language for half my life, at the age of 10 I moved to New Zealand and 6 years later I've almost completely forgotten how to speak German. And now that I think about it, my Chinese is getting pretty bad too...

[MrTwilliger]

Although I'm not multilingual (hell, I can barely speak english to be frank) the whole concept falls under a pretty basic rule of thumb. When you train and develop a skill, you will reach a peak level of performance over a set period of time. If you then stop practising that skill and avoid it over time, your performance levels will decrease from that peak. Sure, you will still be competent at it, perhaps even good. But you can't except to be as good as you once were when you don't put as much time into practising it.

Just a thought.

[DinoNuggets]

Yup. From Spanish speaking country then came to US. and After 10-12 years of being here my spanish isnt fluent anymore D:
I speak it well and read but writing is harder now

[Mirosuke]

Yup. From Spanish speaking country then came to US. and After 10-12 years of being here my spanish isnt fluent anymore D:
I speak it well and read but writing is harder now

this is my future lol

[Miguez]

I still live in Portugal and talk Portuguese all the time but I do think to myself on English alot of times...

But what you're experiencing is normal, most of my siblings have moved out and when they come here to visit they sometimes speak a mix of Portuguese and Spanish or Dutch.

[Doron]

...canada....

But srsly, listen to some french music and it'll come back.

I have englihs thoughts because well, except for talking I do everything else in english..

yeah... damn you holland.

[Squirt]

I have the same problem, I used to be able to speak Spanish well, I even did well in Spanish on high school because like you said they were easy assignments but lately I have been losing a lot of my vocabulary and find myself speaking more and more English to my parents. I am even trying to find ways to avoid my relatives who only speak Spanish because I am afraid that they might think I'm slow

^This

[aishsharma]

I've been speaking english so much for a while now that I've gotten pretty bad at my native tongue hindi, i mean i still read/write it but I find that I don't understand some words that I should know and its gotten worse over the last year. Aggravated by my RL enviornment

[[SD]happynoobing]

from personal experience and looking at ppl around me, it seems that when u go to an english speaking country, keep talking in your native language at home so that you don't forget about it. it might make learning english a bit slow. every chinese i know who switched to speaking english at home with their parents so that they can learn english faster can no longer speak mandarin fluently after a few years, simply because they don't get the chance to practice at all.

[inky]

Yeah, I moved to the US about 6 years ago. I'm still able to speak my native language/dialect with my family but outside of that, I normally speak English. I also lost my native accent during my first year of HS here. I find it awkward talking in Tagalog (Filipino) with other people except with my own family and girlfriend.

[dom]

I watch/read/talk in french on a frequent basis.

When I get frustrated I swear in french.

When I am drunk, I speak english with a heavy french accent.

[Doron]

I have the same problem, I used to be able to speak Spanish well, I even did well in Spanish on high school because like you said they were easy assignments but lately I have been losing a lot of my vocabulary and find myself speaking more and more English to my parents. I am even trying to find ways to avoid my relatives who only speak Spanish because I am afraid that they might think I'm slow

^This

I'm so afraid that will happen to me...

Since I want an Asian wife and make some half Asian-half Dutch kids I wanna raise them at least bilingual, if not trilingual. (If we're going to live in like, America or something)

(let's just hope the above happens^)

But if I were to lose my own language, I can't do that anymore. If I were to speak more English and *insert future wife's language* maybe I'd loose my Dutch and I can't shout at my kids in proper Dutch anymore, and I also couldn't take them to their Grandma and Grandpa (oh well, they're so old they're both dead before I have kids.....) But at least their aunts and uncles (my family really really really does suck at english...)

[TheDrop]

I came to the US when i was like 8, and before that i used to go to an internation school, so my nepali (original language) wasnt't really good it the first place. right now i do forget some words but i speak Nepali at home so its not like i have totally forgotten.

[bot_antist]

I have the same problem, I used to be able to speak Spanish well, I even did well in Spanish on high school because like you said they were easy assignments but lately I have been losing a lot of my vocabulary and find myself speaking more and more English to my parents. I am even trying to find ways to avoid my relatives who only speak Spanish because I am afraid that they might think I'm slow

^This

I'm so afraid that will happen to me...

Since I want an Asian wife and make some half Asian-half Dutch kids I wanna raise them at least bilingual, if not trilingual. (If we're going to live in like, America or something)

(let's just hope the above happens^)

But if I were to lose my own language, I can't do that anymore. If I were to speak more English and *insert future wife's language* maybe I'd loose my Dutch and I can't shout at my kids in proper Dutch anymore, and I also couldn't take them to their Grandma and Grandpa (oh well, they're so old they're both dead before I have kids.....) But at least their aunts and uncles (my family really really really does suck at english...)

NO NO NO. YOU'RE MAKING THE ASIAN WOMAN LOSE THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF TRADITION JUST FOR YOUR FETISHES. SHAMEEEE

[Apy]

I have the same problem, I used to be able to speak Spanish well, I even did well in Spanish on high school because like you said they were easy assignments but lately I have been losing a lot of my vocabulary and find myself speaking more and more English to my parents. I am even trying to find ways to avoid my relatives who only speak Spanish because I am afraid that they might think I'm slow

^This

I'm so afraid that will happen to me...

Since I want an Asian wife and make some half Asian-half Dutch kids I wanna raise them at least bilingual, if not trilingual. (If we're going to live in like, America or something)

(let's just hope the above happens^)

But if I were to lose my own language, I can't do that anymore. If I were to speak more English and *insert future wife's language* maybe I'd loose my Dutch and I can't shout at my kids in proper Dutch anymore, and I also couldn't take them to their Grandma and Grandpa (oh well, they're so old they're both dead before I have kids.....) But at least their aunts and uncles (my family really really really does suck at english...)

I lol'd. Hard.

OT

I'm for like 2 years a student at VIA uni in denmark, At school I speak in english/danish, I also work so that I can actually survive, at work I speak in german, and sometimes (rare) I meet fellows with which I can speak my home language (romanian). Happens really often that my thoughts are in english or german.
It's normal.

[Mirosuke]

I hate White guys haging out asian chicks... :/
idc if its an asian guy, but when its with white guys... somehow piss me off lol
odd

[Apy]

I hate White guys haging out asian chicks... :/
idc if its an asian guy, but when its with white guys... somehow piss me off lol
odd

Racist bastard !

[bot_antist]

I hate White guys haging out asian chicks... :/
idc if its an asian guy, but when its with white guys... somehow piss me off lol
odd

that's because they're traitors to their countries

[bot_antist]

I hate White guys haging out asian chicks... :/
idc if its an asian guy, but when its with white guys... somehow piss me off lol
odd

that's because they're traitors to their countries

[Jstar1]

I hate White guys haging out asian chicks... :/
idc if its an asian guy, but when its with white guys... somehow piss me off lol
odd

that's because they're traitors to their countries

tis true

[CrimsonNuker]

I suck monkey balls at my native language ):

[Skyve]

I watch/read/talk in french on a frequent basis.

When I get frustrated I swear in french.

When I am drunk, I speak english with a heavy french accent.

Yeah I'll most likely never lose my french accent when it comes to english (It's not really heavy, some people don't even notice it)

P.S: You're first language is french or english? Never was too sure.

[mick3201]

lol im in exactly the same situation as you. im from quebec and ive been living there for 12 years but now i live in an enlgish speaking country since 3 years and i also really feel like im losing my french. especially my written french. when i talk its not so bad but as soon as i try to write in actual standard french i have a really hard time with the verbs and shit. so yeah i know how it feels

[SCArchon]

i dont think its that you are losing your vocabulary, you probably still know it but just dont think to use it.

like i used to be able to speak chinese. I started speaking english and forgot how to talk in chinese but i can still understand every chinese word that my family say. If i try really hard i can probably piece together a chinese sentence to speak.