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 Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 12:09 am
From the You Know You're Too Obsessed with Languages when... thread: Proudly_Jewish Quote: If you completely forgot your native language for whatever reason - would you care enough to learn it again, as a foreign language? ..the above actually happens to you (you forget what was once your mother language and you decide to re-learn it as a foreign language). domokun Now, is this happening to anyone? At least, the forgetting your mother language part? I think I'm starting to forget how to speak Cantonese. Not completely, but now I start using English for the words that I can't remember in Cantonese. Partly it's because I don't really need to know it. Everyone in my family can speak English, so there is no real need for me to speak Cantonese. I'm in Sydney so I speak English at school (and I don't study Chinese) and even before that I've been at schools for English speakers so I haven't been formally taught that much Chinese. Of course, part of the problem is that I'm not that good at speaking in general. I think I'm talking slowly (although I actually talk too fast according to many of the people that I know) so I rush to say things and end up saying things in English. The main reason why this is a problem is that I'm not really that good at English, so I might end up being not fluent at either. Any ideas on how to avoid this problem?
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Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 12:55 pm
Wow! I don't think I could ever forget English, even if I went to a foreign country and lived there for a decade or more. I mean, I use it all the time on the internet, and the internet has soooo many sites in English.
But, if I could see it was happening, I would try to keep ties with my family by either writing them or talking on the phone. Then I'd try to read magazines and novels in English. 3nodding
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Spanish Nerd Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 1:26 pm
spanishnerd99 Wow! I don't think I could ever forget English, even if I went to a foreign country and lived there for a decade or more. I mean, I use it all the time on the internet, and the internet has soooo many sites in English. But, if I could see it was happening, I would try to keep ties with my family by either writing them or talking on the phone. Then I'd try to read magazines and novels in English. 3nodding it's happened to my friend and his family after moving to america (he can't speak Norwegian anymore), and a girl I knew mom used to be able to speak japanese and now she doesn't know any japanese Yeah I agree
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Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2006 2:50 pm
Kokoroki spanishnerd99 Wow! I don't think I could ever forget English, even if I went to a foreign country and lived there for a decade or more. I mean, I use it all the time on the internet, and the internet has soooo many sites in English. But, if I could see it was happening, I would try to keep ties with my family by either writing them or talking on the phone. Then I'd try to read magazines and novels in English. 3nodding it's happened to my friend and his family after moving to america (he can't speak Norwegian anymore), and a girl I knew mom used to be able to speak japanese and now she doesn't know any japanese Yeah I agree If they had people still living in their home country, they should keep in touch with their family. It would prevent the situation, no?
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Spanish Nerd Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 6:04 pm
I think I didn't phrase it so well. My native language is Cantonese and that's what I'm starting to forget. I'm saying that I end up replacing Cantonese with English and this is a problem because my English isn't that good either, so if I forget the Cantonese I won't be fluent in anything. (See how I didn't phrase my first post in the thread so well? That's what I mean - my English isn't that good, so I must maintain my Cantonese)
For me, it's speaking that's the problem - I can read and write Chinese much better than anyone expects me to (because I used to read a lot - much more than I would've learned from school), and reading is always the easiest part be it English, Chinese, French, or anything else.
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Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 3:22 am
I never learnt my native language in the first place. sweatdrop
Moving away when you're six months old will do that to you, I guess.
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Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 9:19 pm
 XianKai says...i started down that path where it was difficult to speak/remember words in english and it was very annoying. i taught in Japan for two years. speaking english was my job but because i had to use easier vocabulary for the teachers and townsfolk my brain starting having a conflicting problem. my spoken english was breaking down and my thinking just couldnt keep up. also i was learning japanese along the way, translating in my head english to japanese and vice versa AND dealing with my spanish skills falling of the edge into oblivion! it was a wild ride dealing with my vocabulary changing day to day and my spoken english becoming "piece-y". my family even commented on how i was speaking different. all the time i forgot words in english.
before i went to japan i was gung-ho about learning japanese even to the point of forgetting english but once the process had started i found it to be very agitating and depressing. Go to Japan!!
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Posted: Sun May 21, 2006 1:31 pm
I seem to be slowly but surely turning away from English, my native language. I've been having issues expressing myself, so I've resorted to using French sentences and whatnot.
But how can one forget English in an Anglophone country?
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Eccentric Iconoclast Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat May 27, 2006 2:44 pm
I guess it's fortunate that my native language is English, because it's pretty much an international language. People speak it all over the world (to varying degrees), and I think as long as I have English-speaking friends, I'll retain my English.
Plus, I intend to be a translator, so I'll probably end up using English quite a bit in my career.
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Posted: Sun May 28, 2006 6:29 am
I'm pretty sure I'll forget my mother-language once I start living in an english speaking country in aobut 10 years if I get things the way I want them...
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 6:12 am
HellsBitch I'm pretty sure I'll forget my mother-language once I start living in an english speaking country in aobut 10 years if I get things the way I want them... vice-versa with me! (I would love to forget english, but as SpanishNerd said their are too much websites in english and everyone around the world has to take it.)
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 6:13 am
Eccentric Iconoclast I seem to be slowly but surely turning away from English, my native language. I've been having issues expressing myself, so I've resorted to using French sentences and whatnot. But how can one forget English in an Anglophone country?
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 7:18 am
Kokoroki HellsBitch I'm pretty sure I'll forget my mother-language once I start living in an english speaking country in aobut 10 years if I get things the way I want them... vice-versa with me! (I would love to forget english, but as SpanishNerd said their are too much websites in english and everyone around the world has to take it.)
Just dont make danish your new mother language, promise me that. Danish sucks major. Why you have even started it is beyond me, but oh well. Your waste of time, not mine. I speak it fluent already cool
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Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2006 7:24 am
Hmm I had the same problem with my natve language (which is French). I just spent so much time working my English that I forgot part of what I could say ... The problem isn't necessarly the fact of loosing grammary and so on, it's just a vocabulary loss ... You might have already mentionned that the spoken language in your country is very low compared to all the abilities it gives you...
To get a use of those good formules and to improve your writing, I think you should make a blog in your native language, put a link on it with the Google Translated page of your blog with the name "(Language) version of this site" ... In that case, you can only force yourself to respect grammary & orthographs ...
For me, I feel far easier with French now and I just feel like my vocabulary improved again mrgreen
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