i think this happens to me already though!! haha!! i speak spanish, english and japanese at a japanese grocery store that i work part time at and i seriously can't make any sense at times. LOL
Please! If you are speaking to someone whose first language isnt english, but the person is still pretty proficient in the language, dont dumb your speech down! Use idioms!
I spent 3 years at university attempting to read and form the most complex language possible, then went to Korea and had to speak baby English. I certainly lost a little bit, but tried to shower myself in BBC documentaries and find difficult books at the English language bookshops etc
that sounds remarkably strange. I have lived in the United States my whole life and couldn't imagine losing my English speaking abilities. Still though, you sound incredibly eloquent with the words you do use.
I've been in Japan for 11 years and I speak Korean, Japanese and English (I'm a Korean-American). And I speak Japanese like 90% of the time now and I know exactly how you feel. I can't recall so many English words it's pathetic. And I don't have much foreign friends who are native English speakers (I have 1 friend but we hardly meet). My Korean is going down the drain too. But my Japanese is GOOD!
I know I was teaching myself Japanese for like 3 or 4 years and now instead of saying english words to other english speakers when I'm trying to speak english I blurt out the Japanese words for what I'm trying to say. It's a little frustrating.
This is spot on. It really can happen. Kinda started happening to me too. But I didn't notice it until I moved back to the States after living in Japan. I've started reading a lot more though since returning and that's something that has definitely helped me out tremendously.
I believe it. It sort of happened to me when I lived there years ago. Speaking of which, I may be coming up for a visit in a few months. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Good video and informative Kevin, but it makes perfect sense. I have many people tell me if you don't use it, then you lose it. Like you said just read more and keep making youtube videos.
I live in Germany and go to university here where my classes are in German as well. Not only do words come slower to me in English, but i'm starting to translate German expressions into English. Some common mistakes of mine are (the left being direct german translations and the right being the proper English ones)......
"Hold a presentation" - Give a presentation
"It brings nothing" - There's no use/There's no point....
This is the first time I have heard of this happening out of the videos I have watched from JVlogers. Great to know, thank you Kevin. Did you encounter this in Korea too, or were you not there long enough?
this was a really interesting video! Can you speak Japanese? if your fluent how long did it take you?
Also just wanted to say thanks for the videos :) I'm working on my TEFL certificate and watching your vids during breaks keeps me inspired and looking forward to the end result xoxo
I can relate! I live in China and have for two years. I speak Chinese daily and not English everyday so I start to think in Chinese even when I am by myself. I love it but it gets confusing when I have to instantly switch to English. This doesn't mean my Chinese is super amazing but once you know a lot of the language you start to just stick in the language that relates to everything over here! :)
Kevin could you do a video on what language your child is learning first eng/jap ,or maybe a story of someone else abroad who has a child.
Well do to my limted japanese vocabulary me and the wife speak our own jap/eng hybrid. A lot of time when we agree we always say "hai". which is all good ,but I do this at work sometime kinda embarassing.
A cousin of mine was in an all spanish speaking country for a year and when he came home he found it really difficult to get back into the habit of our native english, after only a year!
Do you dream in Japanese? My forien exchange brazillian friend ended up coming here to get a high school education and he started dreaming in English without realizing it!
When I was living in the Philippines for one year I lost my language skills too. When I came back to the US I had a hard time remembering my own native language because I was so used to not speaking, listening to Bisaya/Tagalog or using that "low English" when I talked. I also got used to the Filipino's way of speaking English when I was there so certain jokes or things people said felt different when I got back. It was overall kind of depressing but I'm glad knowing that I'm not the only one!
omg, that's happening to me D: my native language is cantonese and I moved to Ireland 6 years ago, haven't been back at all and now, I say something in cantonese, then right after, I would realise that I was using english sentence structure when I was speaking O.O I don't know if it makes a difference or not but I was 9 when I moved here so maybe it was easier for me to lose my native language skills?
Yeah! I came her from Twitter actually. I agree that you should read more. The way i think sometimes when im learning Japanese is i think the Japanese word first usually and i sometimes say it aloud instead of English and people look at me like i am from Saturn. So i can see how this can really mess you up even though my situation is a little different. I'm sure someday i will have the same problem. ^?^
I studies abroad in Japan for 1 year and Korea for 1 month. And even in that little time I forgot English words and got an accent on a certain words. It was really weird because I only spent time abroad for such a short period.
I haven't been abroad at all, BUT I still find my English skills deteriorating because I surrounded myself in nothing but korean/japanese TV Korean/Japanese music. My range of vocabulary used to be really good but now it isn't anymore. I also think in 1/3 Chinese, 1/3 English, 1/6 Korean and 1/6 Japanese. Maybe I should lay off the Korean and Japanese stuff. Nothing I can do about Chinese though.
THX4th@ - Nah, don't shave ... you are gonne look like one of The Dubliners if you keep it growing! However, I had that first-language-loosing experience too. I wasn't living abroad for more than a year then, but I haven't had anyone around to speak to in my own language and when I finally returned to my own country, I was struggling to find words ... but after a couple of weeks of acclimatization you will pretty much return to normal. You just need native-speaking surroundings! (^_^)
I've lived all my 20years of life with this, born and raised in Montreal, keep fighting the good fight. You may ask why and the answer to that is because it's more fun to have conversations in multiple languages sometimes all at once.
Haha I was in France for 2 months and even now I'm strill struggling with my English. So years in another country, ouh I don't want to think what it will do to me haha
I use English so much, online, at school, reading music, it's everywhere and lately I've been noticing my Dutch getting worse with time. I still have my Dutch Dialect which is what i use with my parents but at school I sometimes randomly switch between languages without noticing.
get stuck in my head in that language like the flavor descriptor "umami" in japanese. or " te" for the dirt or something like that in korean, lol... i really have no direct translation for those.
I also think that some languages my be more accurate in describing one thing depending of how many cultural encounters you tend to have with the concept. Making in much easier to use that language in that specific case. When you try to go back to the much clumsier language you might get stuck.
I believe anybody who speaks two or more languages fluently experiences this problem. I am a a Mexican-American from California. What i have also noticed at least in my case (i learned English and Spanish simultaneously) is that, I often think in the language that I learned the concept or task in. For example, math and bio English...scolding statements, SPANISH! Also my boyfriend is Korean Japanese, so also certain words i learn in this languages and i have no direct translation
This totally happened to me with my spanish. My native language is spanish and then I moved to the US and lived there for 13 years. Yes my english got better and eventually I spoke it fluently, but I found out that my spanish went down the toilet. Then I started learning (I'm still learning) new languages like latin, french, and german, and currently I'm trying to learn japanese I might learn some Italian too, but the point is that my spanish and to an extent my english kept getting worse.
I have a similar problem. I learned too many languages during my life already, so I mix them up, forget the words in one language but know it in a different one. I think at times when talking to people, I think trilingual. Mostly English, German and Japanese. Rarely French or Swedish, Spanish never happened so far.
use it or lose it, eh kevin...? i know this is relevant for muscular systems (the heart being a muscle too), re. ur running, so i guess this kinda applies to language abilities too. i would suppose that the internet and things like skype make it easier than ever, though, to retain 1st lang. speech..
I think this starts happening pretty soon. I've only been in Japan for a year and I notice myself having a hard time coming up with the words I'm searching for, or if I am trying to think of a word, I can only think of the Japanese word for it. And since I work with preschoolers and elementary school kids, I find myself making the same mistakes they do, like dropping the articles when I speak ("Get blue chair.") It's so frustrating!
I've seen this with a couple of patients of mine. Both ladies have heavy German accents. One started speaking to the other, casually, in German and the other responded once or twice and then sort of stuttered to a stop. "You know, I think I prefer English now." So 20 years in this country, speaking English and she never lost the accent but lost the German! Habit is everything.
that happens to me, i've been in the UK for 11 years and my tagalog is pretty much messed up now. I have trouble writing and reading tagalog texts, although my spoken tagalog is good, it's minimal in terms of vocabulary
My friend from Russia had the same problem you're addressing here, I even asked him out of curiosity, what language "do you think in", and he said English, and he felt surprised by it. Do you still think in English or find yourself thinking in another language?
I can concur with suffering from first language attrition.
As a multiple language speaker (7) i feel like i loosing a major grasp of especially my native language. I can of course speak it, and pronounce it right, but I feel like i'm slowly loosing variety and the complexity of it, feels weird.
For example, translating a foreign book to you're native language while you're reading it becomes harder as well.
Watching news for a native channel you're just amazed about all the words used.
1st language attrition is a scary reality. But, what I haven't read about is the awkward experience one finds themselves in after they educate themselves and realize that others are not as "smart" as they are now. Living in Asia has its benefits. If a person decides to read more, they may become smarter. However, the world of archetypes, stereotypes, and ignorance will not change with the individual. So, I don't think that first language attrition is the only scary reality about living abroad.
Yeah DUDE! YES! I noticed after the first time I went back to the US. CRAZINESS! I also find myself saying "kenchanneyo" over "It's okay"... "aaiiysh" over "aww shit" and even sometimes "jinja?" over "really?" ....It's kinda cool... A character builder I guess.
English is my first language, but we spoke Japanese in our household when I was young. When we used to visit relatives in Japan during the summer time for several weeks, I would come back and it would take me a while to get my English skills back. It's been about three decades since I've been back to Japan and I rarely speak Japanese, so I doubt I would have the same problem if I ever traveled to Japan for a couple of weeks in the future. Should have tried to keep my Japanese speaking skills up.
After 20 years here, with more than 15 of them spent teaching the bronze medalists of the special Olympics, I've totally lost my ability to sit and have an intellectual conversation. My English has been dumbed down so far it's not even funny. I sat at my desk for 5 minutes yesterday in pure agony because I couldn't say "verification".
Well, that's what we always face here back in malaysia, which is a multiracial country. Everyone of us can at least speak 3 languages. As for me, i speak my 'hakka' dialect wth my family, mandarin with my chinese friends, 'malay' language with my malay friends, english with my local ethnic friends and for formal use. But.... since I'm used to it, i'm pretty good at all these languages.
It's all about how our brains work. Khatzumoto did an intersting post on his ajatt site. Our brains are constantly trying to make space for new things and experiences, and will "erase" things that we don't use anymore. It is very possible that if a native English speaker didn't use English for about 40-50 years, he would have completely lost his ability to speak English. However, if we learned something (in this case, a language) and forgot it due to disuse, we can still relearn it very quickly.
I have the same problem, but for a different reason. I dislike my first language and so I try to think and write in English as much as possible, resulting in me sometimes having a hard time finding the right word I'm looking for, whereas I do know the word in English.
You`re right. I know a person who has been living abroad for a long time and now she has quite a hard time when speaking her mother tongue :-s. Even her accent was slightly different. ..
Oh..and worse is when your native language isnt english (like in my case) and there are almost no possibilities to practice ..well..your own language. I plan to go to Japan in the near future..and I`m kinda aware of that...
@RockXdomination I know excactly what you mean. I plan to go to Japan next August. And guess what. My mother tongue is Norwegian. One of the smallest languages in the world, by number of speakers. I plan to read Norwegian papers, maybe some Jo Nesbø ;) and watch Norwegian web-tv, but still...
If u plan to spend a long time in Japan..I mean years.. it could be kind of a problem but yeah..bringing books, watching web tv in ur language and so on..will help. Good luck :)
native language. I think it's very common among those that speak two and more languages really well, whether you're living abroad or communicating with foreigners most of the time in your country.
It's VERY common. But those people that have never lived abroad don't believe in such a phenomenon. But it also happens to people that work in foreign companies in their own country. I lived in the US for only half a year (include here that I'm bilingual), plus 90% of my work is interacting with English-speaking people (Americans, Canadians, etc).My native language, English (& now Japanese) are all mixed up.And most of the time I find it easier to speak my mind in English than in my
It's funny cause it's true, I don't really live abroad but the amount of foreign material I absorb daily starts to affect me the same way, I get to temporarily forget words in my own language. I wonder what happens to people who know like 4+ languages
this is very interesting. Although i was only on exchange in Japan for 3 months, i was in such a rural area that i found myself speaking no English whatsoever for the whole 3 months. Host family didn't speak a word of English. When i was coming to the end of my trip and made a connect call back to my family in Australia, i found it very difficult to find words that were on the tip of my tongue, i also used much more discourse fillers and simple English. So i can't imagine what 10 years would do.
Wow! This all makes so much more sense now :) My best friend is Taiwanese. His first languages were Japanese and Chinese until middle school. After middle school, he moved to New Zealand for high school and America for college. He can't speak Japanese anymore and sounds like a foreigner while speaking Chinese now (according to Chinese speakers). English is his best language, but he's not quite fluent yet. I think he has first language attrition, too! I'm sorry it's happening to you now!
Funnily enough, I was thinking about this today when I saw one of my students with a Tweety Bird pencil case. Obviously, it said: "I taut I taw a puddy tat." It occurred to me just how sophisticated my language skills would have to be to understand the equivalent of that in Korean, and how I might eventually stop recognizing subtler parts of English the more time I spent abroad.
I really like your videos however the audio is always too low! I have youtube volume and my macbook pro volume to max and still struggle to hear. Problem is when i switch back to my music, its soo loud my laptop flies off my desk!
Isn't it difficult to tell either you are having "Language Attrition" or " Second language Interference"?
I am curious about why you think you are having "Language Attrition" rather than " Second language interference".
ry0718 1 month ago
i think this happens to me already though!! haha!! i speak spanish, english and japanese at a japanese grocery store that i work part time at and i seriously can't make any sense at times. LOL
TheMexicanGaysha 3 months ago
if you lock yourself up in your house and don't make native english speaking friends in Korea, there's no way your English would improve now, is it?
blackinque 3 months ago
I know English but its not my language. My native language is Spanish but when I was learning English, yeah I felt that I was forgetting Spanish.
SeanChiruchi 3 months ago
eh?
CapChronic 4 months ago
Please! If you are speaking to someone whose first language isnt english, but the person is still pretty proficient in the language, dont dumb your speech down! Use idioms!
Degenskonto 4 months ago
I spent 3 years at university attempting to read and form the most complex language possible, then went to Korea and had to speak baby English. I certainly lost a little bit, but tried to shower myself in BBC documentaries and find difficult books at the English language bookshops etc
tomsega 5 months ago
that sounds remarkably strange. I have lived in the United States my whole life and couldn't imagine losing my English speaking abilities. Still though, you sound incredibly eloquent with the words you do use.
chalexyeti 5 months ago
I've been in Japan for 11 years and I speak Korean, Japanese and English (I'm a Korean-American). And I speak Japanese like 90% of the time now and I know exactly how you feel. I can't recall so many English words it's pathetic. And I don't have much foreign friends who are native English speakers (I have 1 friend but we hardly meet). My Korean is going down the drain too. But my Japanese is GOOD!
pskim731 5 months ago
@BusanKevin I know EXACTLY what you mean! I'm in the same boat :(
warpedgaijin 5 months ago
Oh my goodness, that must suck Kev ! Sorry D:
I know I was teaching myself Japanese for like 3 or 4 years and now instead of saying english words to other english speakers when I'm trying to speak english I blurt out the Japanese words for what I'm trying to say. It's a little frustrating.
snapsnaporange 5 months ago
ive only been studying japanese for 3 years and my english is slowly changing deteriorating already! its a really interesting process to go through
mathgurlc18 5 months ago
This is spot on. It really can happen. Kinda started happening to me too. But I didn't notice it until I moved back to the States after living in Japan. I've started reading a lot more though since returning and that's something that has definitely helped me out tremendously.
sweeneagle16 5 months ago 3
I believe it. It sort of happened to me when I lived there years ago. Speaking of which, I may be coming up for a visit in a few months. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
uglyengineer 5 months ago
Good video and informative Kevin, but it makes perfect sense. I have many people tell me if you don't use it, then you lose it. Like you said just read more and keep making youtube videos.
cloudstrifeification 5 months ago
I live in Germany and go to university here where my classes are in German as well. Not only do words come slower to me in English, but i'm starting to translate German expressions into English. Some common mistakes of mine are (the left being direct german translations and the right being the proper English ones)......
"Hold a presentation" - Give a presentation
"It brings nothing" - There's no use/There's no point....
"cook coffee" - make coffee
I don't see this getting any better.....
mdbum 5 months ago
This seems kind of obvious. I expected more. XD
Googlinq 5 months ago
wow, I never knew that!!! 0.0 I'll keep this in mind!!! ;)
MANNY100123 5 months ago
I was told that it's impossible to forget your native language. Would you say that your Japanese is at a higher level then your English?
blackhat2005 5 months ago
This is the first time I have heard of this happening out of the videos I have watched from JVlogers. Great to know, thank you Kevin. Did you encounter this in Korea too, or were you not there long enough?
AutomHatter 5 months ago
this was a really interesting video! Can you speak Japanese? if your fluent how long did it take you?
Also just wanted to say thanks for the videos :) I'm working on my TEFL certificate and watching your vids during breaks keeps me inspired and looking forward to the end result xoxo
aintthatpretty09 5 months ago
I can relate! I live in China and have for two years. I speak Chinese daily and not English everyday so I start to think in Chinese even when I am by myself. I love it but it gets confusing when I have to instantly switch to English. This doesn't mean my Chinese is super amazing but once you know a lot of the language you start to just stick in the language that relates to everything over here! :)
flashatizer 5 months ago
Kevin could you do a video on what language your child is learning first eng/jap ,or maybe a story of someone else abroad who has a child.
Well do to my limted japanese vocabulary me and the wife speak our own jap/eng hybrid. A lot of time when we agree we always say "hai". which is all good ,but I do this at work sometime kinda embarassing.
nyannyan123456 5 months ago
soon you'll have a beard like me. Shaving is over rated!
APOKALYPSE34 5 months ago
hey Just curious , being Canadian do you also speck French???
clicker12000 5 months ago
A cousin of mine was in an all spanish speaking country for a year and when he came home he found it really difficult to get back into the habit of our native english, after only a year!
RatGirl1987 5 months ago
you just need to be immersed in english again.
spend about a month or two back in canada, and it'll come back.
JimS0cks 5 months ago
Do you dream in Japanese? My forien exchange brazillian friend ended up coming here to get a high school education and he started dreaming in English without realizing it!
DarkBeam 5 months ago
Start learning Japanese dude!
StoicSamurai 5 months ago
This is the first time I have seen this subject brought up. It is important to know because what you say is very true.
Limastudent 5 months ago
My dad is from Quebec,but sometimes his french is'nt that good because he lives in BC now.He's got no accent though.
So there's the bright side,maybe...depending on your point of view.
HyakkoShachi 5 months ago
When I was living in the Philippines for one year I lost my language skills too. When I came back to the US I had a hard time remembering my own native language because I was so used to not speaking, listening to Bisaya/Tagalog or using that "low English" when I talked. I also got used to the Filipino's way of speaking English when I was there so certain jokes or things people said felt different when I got back. It was overall kind of depressing but I'm glad knowing that I'm not the only one!
MissWakalaka 5 months ago
Hmmm,could be time to go back home eh.You must miss your family and friends!.
peteynum1 5 months ago
I write a lot...maybe it wont hit me as hard when I go over to Japan because of that....hopefully.
OtacooI 5 months ago
omg, that's happening to me D: my native language is cantonese and I moved to Ireland 6 years ago, haven't been back at all and now, I say something in cantonese, then right after, I would realise that I was using english sentence structure when I was speaking O.O I don't know if it makes a difference or not but I was 9 when I moved here so maybe it was easier for me to lose my native language skills?
TheLollipopAhh 5 months ago
Yeah! I came her from Twitter actually. I agree that you should read more. The way i think sometimes when im learning Japanese is i think the Japanese word first usually and i sometimes say it aloud instead of English and people look at me like i am from Saturn. So i can see how this can really mess you up even though my situation is a little different. I'm sure someday i will have the same problem. ^?^
TheItsumaru 5 months ago
Could someone completely loose the ability to to speak there native language? If so that's kind of spooky! O_o
jimbim121 5 months ago
I studies abroad in Japan for 1 year and Korea for 1 month. And even in that little time I forgot English words and got an accent on a certain words. It was really weird because I only spent time abroad for such a short period.
oliviakeyful 5 months ago
I haven't been abroad at all, BUT I still find my English skills deteriorating because I surrounded myself in nothing but korean/japanese TV Korean/Japanese music. My range of vocabulary used to be really good but now it isn't anymore. I also think in 1/3 Chinese, 1/3 English, 1/6 Korean and 1/6 Japanese. Maybe I should lay off the Korean and Japanese stuff. Nothing I can do about Chinese though.
TheJeleb 5 months ago
THX4th@ - Nah, don't shave ... you are gonne look like one of The Dubliners if you keep it growing! However, I had that first-language-loosing experience too. I wasn't living abroad for more than a year then, but I haven't had anyone around to speak to in my own language and when I finally returned to my own country, I was struggling to find words ... but after a couple of weeks of acclimatization you will pretty much return to normal. You just need native-speaking surroundings! (^_^)
Leecher4711 5 months ago
Funny, I have this problem too. Thing is, I still live in my native country. Must be age.
TheKenrid 5 months ago
I've lived all my 20years of life with this, born and raised in Montreal, keep fighting the good fight. You may ask why and the answer to that is because it's more fun to have conversations in multiple languages sometimes all at once.
kawaiiyasai 5 months ago
Haha I was in France for 2 months and even now I'm strill struggling with my English. So years in another country, ouh I don't want to think what it will do to me haha
hitsugiluva 5 months ago
I use English so much, online, at school, reading music, it's everywhere and lately I've been noticing my Dutch getting worse with time. I still have my Dutch Dialect which is what i use with my parents but at school I sometimes randomly switch between languages without noticing.
StarAWings 5 months ago
get stuck in my head in that language like the flavor descriptor "umami" in japanese. or " te" for the dirt or something like that in korean, lol... i really have no direct translation for those.
I also think that some languages my be more accurate in describing one thing depending of how many cultural encounters you tend to have with the concept. Making in much easier to use that language in that specific case. When you try to go back to the much clumsier language you might get stuck.
selenericardez 5 months ago
I'm good acquainted with this problem, i'm just starting to forget my native language
tigrius 5 months ago
I believe anybody who speaks two or more languages fluently experiences this problem. I am a a Mexican-American from California. What i have also noticed at least in my case (i learned English and Spanish simultaneously) is that, I often think in the language that I learned the concept or task in. For example, math and bio English...scolding statements, SPANISH! Also my boyfriend is Korean Japanese, so also certain words i learn in this languages and i have no direct translation
selenericardez 5 months ago
This totally happened to me with my spanish. My native language is spanish and then I moved to the US and lived there for 13 years. Yes my english got better and eventually I spoke it fluently, but I found out that my spanish went down the toilet. Then I started learning (I'm still learning) new languages like latin, french, and german, and currently I'm trying to learn japanese I might learn some Italian too, but the point is that my spanish and to an extent my english kept getting worse.
cel327z 5 months ago
I have a similar problem. I learned too many languages during my life already, so I mix them up, forget the words in one language but know it in a different one. I think at times when talking to people, I think trilingual. Mostly English, German and Japanese. Rarely French or Swedish, Spanish never happened so far.
CerberusTenshi 5 months ago
use it or lose it, eh kevin...? i know this is relevant for muscular systems (the heart being a muscle too), re. ur running, so i guess this kinda applies to language abilities too. i would suppose that the internet and things like skype make it easier than ever, though, to retain 1st lang. speech..
MargaritasAntesPorco 5 months ago
So I'm wonder Kevin, seeing as you've been living in Japan...4 years I believe? Are you also losing your fluency/ability to speak Korean?
meltingtomato 5 months ago
I think this starts happening pretty soon. I've only been in Japan for a year and I notice myself having a hard time coming up with the words I'm searching for, or if I am trying to think of a word, I can only think of the Japanese word for it. And since I work with preschoolers and elementary school kids, I find myself making the same mistakes they do, like dropping the articles when I speak ("Get blue chair.") It's so frustrating!
morethansushiLJ 5 months ago
i agree
sherpaurgentlywanted 5 months ago
I've seen this with a couple of patients of mine. Both ladies have heavy German accents. One started speaking to the other, casually, in German and the other responded once or twice and then sort of stuttered to a stop. "You know, I think I prefer English now." So 20 years in this country, speaking English and she never lost the accent but lost the German! Habit is everything.
nokomarie1963 5 months ago
that's really insane, first language attrition ... woah, it almost sounds dangerous you know :/
JerkNinja 5 months ago
that happens to me, i've been in the UK for 11 years and my tagalog is pretty much messed up now. I have trouble writing and reading tagalog texts, although my spoken tagalog is good, it's minimal in terms of vocabulary
rtablada 5 months ago
My friend from Russia had the same problem you're addressing here, I even asked him out of curiosity, what language "do you think in", and he said English, and he felt surprised by it. Do you still think in English or find yourself thinking in another language?
terracearts 5 months ago 32
I can concur with suffering from first language attrition.
As a multiple language speaker (7) i feel like i loosing a major grasp of especially my native language. I can of course speak it, and pronounce it right, but I feel like i'm slowly loosing variety and the complexity of it, feels weird.
For example, translating a foreign book to you're native language while you're reading it becomes harder as well.
Watching news for a native channel you're just amazed about all the words used.
anacrusis79 5 months ago
I meant to say... 1st language attrition is NOT the only scary reality that ex-pats like ourselves face.
lacalaw2009 5 months ago
1st language attrition is a scary reality. But, what I haven't read about is the awkward experience one finds themselves in after they educate themselves and realize that others are not as "smart" as they are now. Living in Asia has its benefits. If a person decides to read more, they may become smarter. However, the world of archetypes, stereotypes, and ignorance will not change with the individual. So, I don't think that first language attrition is the only scary reality about living abroad.
lacalaw2009 5 months ago
If you don't use it, you lose it. Also, I would totally underscore the point you made at the end.... READ!!!!!!!!!!!
lacalaw2009 5 months ago
I don't like how it says on youtube I watched this video when I didn't
terracearts 5 months ago
After just one month in Colombia speaking Spanish I noticed "getting stuck" on English my first couple days back.
ChristopherMast 5 months ago
Yeah DUDE! YES! I noticed after the first time I went back to the US. CRAZINESS! I also find myself saying "kenchanneyo" over "It's okay"... "aaiiysh" over "aww shit" and even sometimes "jinja?" over "really?" ....It's kinda cool... A character builder I guess.
durkeeinkorea 5 months ago
English is my first language, but we spoke Japanese in our household when I was young. When we used to visit relatives in Japan during the summer time for several weeks, I would come back and it would take me a while to get my English skills back. It's been about three decades since I've been back to Japan and I rarely speak Japanese, so I doubt I would have the same problem if I ever traveled to Japan for a couple of weeks in the future. Should have tried to keep my Japanese speaking skills up.
kantishna39 5 months ago
You can practice your English on youtube all you want, we'll be listening. ;)
lissheim 5 months ago
After 20 years here, with more than 15 of them spent teaching the bronze medalists of the special Olympics, I've totally lost my ability to sit and have an intellectual conversation. My English has been dumbed down so far it's not even funny. I sat at my desk for 5 minutes yesterday in pure agony because I couldn't say "verification".
WarmothStrat 5 months ago
Well, that's what we always face here back in malaysia, which is a multiracial country. Everyone of us can at least speak 3 languages. As for me, i speak my 'hakka' dialect wth my family, mandarin with my chinese friends, 'malay' language with my malay friends, english with my local ethnic friends and for formal use. But.... since I'm used to it, i'm pretty good at all these languages.
You just need more practice... Great video.
MsBear1122 5 months ago
It's all about how our brains work. Khatzumoto did an intersting post on his ajatt site. Our brains are constantly trying to make space for new things and experiences, and will "erase" things that we don't use anymore. It is very possible that if a native English speaker didn't use English for about 40-50 years, he would have completely lost his ability to speak English. However, if we learned something (in this case, a language) and forgot it due to disuse, we can still relearn it very quickly.
renoxuken 5 months ago
I have the same problem, but for a different reason. I dislike my first language and so I try to think and write in English as much as possible, resulting in me sometimes having a hard time finding the right word I'm looking for, whereas I do know the word in English.
MGSGeneral 5 months ago
You`re right. I know a person who has been living abroad for a long time and now she has quite a hard time when speaking her mother tongue :-s. Even her accent was slightly different. ..
Oh..and worse is when your native language isnt english (like in my case) and there are almost no possibilities to practice ..well..your own language. I plan to go to Japan in the near future..and I`m kinda aware of that...
RockXdomination 5 months ago
@RockXdomination I know excactly what you mean. I plan to go to Japan next August. And guess what. My mother tongue is Norwegian. One of the smallest languages in the world, by number of speakers. I plan to read Norwegian papers, maybe some Jo Nesbø ;) and watch Norwegian web-tv, but still...
sjureman 5 months ago
@sjureman
If u plan to spend a long time in Japan..I mean years.. it could be kind of a problem but yeah..bringing books, watching web tv in ur language and so on..will help. Good luck :)
RockXdomination 5 months ago
@RockXdomination Thanks. Good luck to you too!
sjureman 5 months ago
Keep talking to us on webcam, that should help you english.
mrunratedr 5 months ago
native language. I think it's very common among those that speak two and more languages really well, whether you're living abroad or communicating with foreigners most of the time in your country.
dothetwist298 5 months ago
It's VERY common. But those people that have never lived abroad don't believe in such a phenomenon. But it also happens to people that work in foreign companies in their own country. I lived in the US for only half a year (include here that I'm bilingual), plus 90% of my work is interacting with English-speaking people (Americans, Canadians, etc).My native language, English (& now Japanese) are all mixed up.And most of the time I find it easier to speak my mind in English than in my
dothetwist298 5 months ago
It's funny cause it's true, I don't really live abroad but the amount of foreign material I absorb daily starts to affect me the same way, I get to temporarily forget words in my own language. I wonder what happens to people who know like 4+ languages
PiratePotatoe 5 months ago
this is very interesting. Although i was only on exchange in Japan for 3 months, i was in such a rural area that i found myself speaking no English whatsoever for the whole 3 months. Host family didn't speak a word of English. When i was coming to the end of my trip and made a connect call back to my family in Australia, i found it very difficult to find words that were on the tip of my tongue, i also used much more discourse fillers and simple English. So i can't imagine what 10 years would do.
Jackmyster99 5 months ago
I have to speak low because I am filming this at night and I don't want to wake my son up! I'll crank it up in my editor next time!
BusanKevin 5 months ago 13
@BusanKevin do you use google+ ?
mongchild22 5 months ago
@BusanKevin is living in japan expensive?? i really wanna go and live there,i love their culture and beautiful places.
superotakufan 5 months ago
Wow! This all makes so much more sense now :) My best friend is Taiwanese. His first languages were Japanese and Chinese until middle school. After middle school, he moved to New Zealand for high school and America for college. He can't speak Japanese anymore and sounds like a foreigner while speaking Chinese now (according to Chinese speakers). English is his best language, but he's not quite fluent yet. I think he has first language attrition, too! I'm sorry it's happening to you now!
LaurenNIHON 5 months ago
Funnily enough, I was thinking about this today when I saw one of my students with a Tweety Bird pencil case. Obviously, it said: "I taut I taw a puddy tat." It occurred to me just how sophisticated my language skills would have to be to understand the equivalent of that in Korean, and how I might eventually stop recognizing subtler parts of English the more time I spent abroad.
onceatraveler 5 months ago
I really like your videos however the audio is always too low! I have youtube volume and my macbook pro volume to max and still struggle to hear. Problem is when i switch back to my music, its soo loud my laptop flies off my desk!
Seanuk 5 months ago