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Losing your First Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4049 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes  Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 17 of 18 30 October 2013 at 10:49pm | IP Logged |
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I knew a Romenian girl who was adopted at age of seven; i asked her to say me something in
romenian but she answerd that she was unable to remember not even one word. She was eighteen... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5011 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 18 of 18 31 October 2013 at 8:08pm | IP Logged |
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Friends of my family's moved to Germany ten years ago. The whole family speaks Czech
but the children (who weren't that young back than) seem to be expressing themselves easier in German than in Czech. They haven't lost the language but their education in German has played a crutial role. And who knows how will their Czech develop or degenerate while tey are far from their family at university? An interesting case is our former minister for foreign affairs:Schwarzenberg. As his family used to be nobility, they had to leave the country under the communist rule. And he spent 50 years or so abroad, mostly in Austria. He did all he could, read books in Czech, practiced when an opportunity arised. His Czech, taking all this into account, is admirable (many other emigrants have lost much more, including Madeleine Albright). But considering his age and health, he sounds noticeably older in Czech than in German. Some stupid people are even making fun of him for his "senile" speech (but he was quite successful in the elections last week) but he sounds better (and younger) in German. You can lose a lot of skills you do not use regularily. How many older people can write an essay or a story in their native language anymore? And they had to put together a few at school. Their job usually requires at most emails, business agreements and similar things. I am writing mostly sms or lecture notes in Czech and therefore I am much better at writing in English these days because that's what I practice, that's what I do every single day. So how could someone not living in the country and not using their native language avoid losing at least large chunks of it? 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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