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Forgetting languages | ||
Tags: Forgetting a language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| albysky Triglot Senior Member Italy lang-8.com/1108796Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4389 days ago 287 posts - 393 votes  Speaks: Italian*, English, German | Message 1 of 12 13 May 2013 at 12:08pm | IP Logged |
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Assuming my level in x language near C1 , if I didn't do any activity at all involving
this language for 6 months \1 year , how would that affect my knowledge ? I am pretty sure I would lose much of the fluency , but what about the ability to understand the language ? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4522 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic | Message 2 of 12 13 May 2013 at 1:58pm | IP Logged |
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I hadn't used my Norwegian for about 2 years (the only Scandinavian language I used a bit was Icelandic for about the first 6 month, which still leaves 1.5 years without any Scandinavian language ... I might have watched the occasional film though, but more likely in Swedish, but I can't really remember) and could still read it without a problem, the same with audiobooks (they are spoken very clearly in Norwegian). I'm not sure about listening comprehension, I think it got a bit worse. Edited by daegga on 13 May 2013 at 2:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4708 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 3 of 12 13 May 2013 at 2:05pm | IP Logged |
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I have retained languages decently well at levels far below C1 (German for example). Just
be prepared to do a refresher and then within a week you are up and running. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Zireael Triglot Senior Member Poland Joined 4652 days ago 518 posts - 636 votes Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English | Message 4 of 12 13 May 2013 at 2:40pm | IP Logged |
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If you're "near C1", 6 months shouldn't do that much to you. I've had a 6 months break in English around B2 level, and it's fine.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Luso Hexaglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6062 days ago 819 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical) | Message 5 of 12 13 May 2013 at 4:06pm | IP Logged |
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Actually, I think it depends on a few factors:
- how long did it take you to reach that level, - for how long have you had that level, - what is your exposure to that language / culture, when not learning, - and possibly others (personal characteristics, etc.). To illustrate: if you are a young person that has been learning that language in school for quite a few years and have some added exposure (TV,...), then I'd say you'll lose nothing. If on the other hand you have learned an exotic language in one year by immersing yourself in it and now cut off the ties completely, then I'd say you'll need more than a few hours' refreshing. Anyway, six months to one year is not such a long period, so you'll probably fare ok. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4623 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 6 of 12 13 May 2013 at 4:43pm | IP Logged |
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It depends on whether you make a clean break from the language or whether you retain some exposure. My wife phones her mother every night (in German), watches some German TV and listens to occasional German music, so it's always lurking in the background for me.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 7 of 12 13 May 2013 at 5:41pm | IP Logged |
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And as illustrated by daegga, related languages keep one another alive.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4950 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 8 of 12 20 May 2013 at 7:17am | IP Logged |
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This is the silver (golden?) lining of all the struggle, travail, countless hours, and
assiduous dedication to learn any language: once you reach a certain level and better yet retain that level for some time by using the language somehow, you can then afford yourself (if you so wanted, or just thrust upon you by life's circumstances), a very extended interlude and there will be little effect. Vocabulary recall (affecting output) and to a lesser degree listening will be the ones to suffer the most. Once you achieve certain levels in language, you can go two even three years I believe and not have catastrophic loss. Beyond that, every year that passes probably does have deleterious effects. But even then, if you decide to re-learn it, it would probably take you only 1/5 of the original time spent to get back to speed. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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