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Decline in Native Language? | ||
Tags: Native Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6705 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes  Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 9 of 23 15 June 2015 at 9:53am | IP Logged | ||
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I wonder whether those who report problems in their native language experience those problem when they try to say things in it which they know perfectly well to say in some other language - but their own language expresses those things in a different way, for instance because it lacks some crucial term.
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| Via Diva Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4236 days ago 1109 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek | Message 10 of 23 15 June 2015 at 10:01am | IP Logged | ||
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Iversen, or you just get used to express something in another language and when you have to say it in your native one you get confused.
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| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4641 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 11 of 23 15 June 2015 at 10:31am | IP Logged | ||
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I've been living abroad for the last 20 years and in all those years, I have been using English, Spanish and French much more than my native language. However, I would not say that I have noticed a "decline", my Norwegian is still "fluent" and fully functional. However, when I visit Norway I do notice that I am out of date. There are idiomatic expressions, words and phrases that have come into the language over the years which I've missed out on because I wasn't in the country, and I hardly ever see Norwegian TV, and spend less and less time on Norwegian news websites due to their poor quality (as I see it). On the other hand, I use certain words and forms that sound old-fashioned to my younger relatives.
It does happen very occasionally that I hesitate for a second or two as to the right way of expressing something, e.g. what preposition to use in a given context. However, when I see how some of my friends and relatives write on social media, I think I still write a better and more correct Norwegian than most of them. Sorry if that sounds pretentious, but ever since I learned how to read and write I have been very conscious of writing correctly. Today it seems a lot of people really don't care, 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Arthaey Groupie United States arthaey.com Joined 5048 days ago 97 posts - 155 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 12 of 23 15 June 2015 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | ||
Do you think this is even more than what naturally happens simply by being 20 years older than "kids these days"? Older folks always sound a little old-fashioned to their younger relatives, even without adding additional languages or living abroad to the mix, right? :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4891 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 13 of 23 15 June 2015 at 9:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've lived in non-English environments twice, once for 2 years and once for six months.
I don't think my English actually declined, but there were times when it took a few minutes (and sometimes a few days) to switch back to speaking fluently. It's a strange feeling, yeah? The worst moment I had was when I was back in the States trying to order a bagel. The girl at the counter asked me how I wanted it prepared, and I choked. I couldn't think of any of the words for what you might do to a bagel, and all I did was stare at her blankly. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| chaotic_thought Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 3544 days ago 129 posts - 274 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, French | Message 14 of 23 15 June 2015 at 10:49pm | IP Logged | ||
I'll take the bagel sunny-side-up. Seriously, what words are normally used to describe how a bagel is prepared?? 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4292 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 15 of 23 15 June 2015 at 11:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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When I was at a sandwich place in Manchester, I asked for jalapeños, and for some
reason that got me all into Spanish mode. You have to go along the queue quite wuickly and announce your preferred ingredientes for your sandwich. Given that I was already thinking in Spanish back then, I started saying jalapeños, lechuga, bistéc, tomate, olivos, until I realised that I must have looked like a crazy fool because the other customers started staring at me. Edited by 1e4e6 on 15 June 2015 at 11:45pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4891 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 16 of 23 16 June 2015 at 1:06am | IP Logged | ||
Buttered. Toasted. With cream cheese. Basic things, really, but all I could think was "I just want a bagel." 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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