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Reawakening first languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5557 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 1 of 3 02 November 2010 at 2:08pm | IP Logged |
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I had an interesting chat today with a really nice bloke who grew up in a bilingual family initially in the UK (mum English, dad French), and yet ironically ended up speaking only Spanish by the age of 4-5 because his nanny/babysitter was Mexican.
He then moved to the US, where the teachers at the local pre-school told his parents to sit him in front of as much American TV as possible and to get him to only speak in English from then on, which they did. And so he hasn't returned to Spanish ever since, although he's gone on to speak French and Italian fluently through univsersity and living abroad (in addition to his native language of English of course). So the main question for me is...what really happens to lost or estranged childhood languages later on in the adult mind? Are these abilities in Spanish, developed during the earliest critical stages of first language acquisition, now lost forever; or can they be at least partially reawoken? For example, what would happen if this guy started learning Spanish again now? Would he be able to quickly pick up the sounds and intonation of spoken Spanish, without retaining a foreign accent, due to all that early exposure and practice? Edited by Teango on 02 November 2010 at 2:48pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5960 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 2 of 3 02 November 2010 at 3:13pm | IP Logged |
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From my experience and my husbands', with Toishanese, those languages can be reawoken. And assuming the original Spanish accent was pretty good, that too can come back.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5557 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 3 of 3 04 November 2010 at 1:29pm | IP Logged |
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@Snowflake
That's really encouraging! May I ask at what age you lost touch with Toishanese? I'm assuming here that you rediscovered it as an adult and were able to reestablish pretty good pronunciation too. This makes me also wonder if early exposure to a foreign language (or at least the sounds of the language), even if we don't end up really using it, makes a big difference when learning it later on in life? For example, I lived in Berlin and Bünde when I was only 2-4.5 years old, and was surrounded most the time by English speakers and only ever heard English used at home (another British Army kid, if you didn't already guess). I did however have one or two German friends from the local block of flats, as well as a doting elderly neighbour named Frau Hess who was more like a lovely second Oma and used to babysit and bake me lots of cookies, so I'm told. :) The thing is..when I ask my parents, it seems I didn't pick up any German along the way unfortunately, or if I did, I certainly couldn't recall any when I returned to Ireland and later the UK. Yet I've often wondered whether it's possible that some of the sounds or patterns of German are still hidden away somewhere in my little labyrinth of flailing memories...? Maybe others here can relate or offer up their own thoughts on the issue?? Edited by Teango on 04 November 2010 at 2:06pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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