Anybody here from immigrant families or expats? I feel like you could possibly relate. My first language was the Chaozhou dialect from China, and eventually I learned English starting in elementary school and spoke it more and more as I assimilated into U.S life here. However, as I spoke way more English in my daily life, to friends, teachers, even to my immigrant relatives whose English is their second language, I still speak English to them, I'm beginning to forget my first language. Any Expats or children of immigrants have this problem?
Hey Anthony, I think it's quite common. It does not happen to everyone, but it's a rather normal occurrence. I know a lot of families where parents talk to their kids in their language (e.g. Vietnamese, Afrikaans, etc.), but the kids reply in English. I can relate to you in a way that I still remember how to speak my first language, but for some words I need to really try hard to remember them. The way I structure my sentences in my first language is also based on English language which makes it sound a little odd. I can express myself a lot better in English since this is the language I speak 99% of the day. You're never alone in this world
Yes, my mom taught me Spanish before English but my no one else in my family spoke it and I had to speak English in school so I eventually lost a good portion of the language.
Yeah, I can barely speak Finnish these days. I've spoken English and Finnish from a young age and my Finnish just disappeared over time from lack of use. It comes back in small bursts when I immerse myself (which is relatively hard when so few speak it outside of the country), but I'm definitely no longer expressive in it. It's gotten to the point where I speak three non-native languages far better than one of my native languages. I'm not really sure I could reverse that easily.
It's not so much that I "forgot" so much that I'm out of practice and self-conscious (what I knew were the bare basics, anyway). I can get the gist of a conversation in Spanish, have less of an accent of a first time learner, and have an easier time with things like gender, conjugations, order. There's evidence that the way we learn our first language during our early years is very different than how someone does later on. Even if I never came into contact with it again, I'm sure some things would have stuck with me. Luckily, we have no shortage of immigrants here, so I'm constantly exposed. ^_^ Now, navigating the various dialects is a whole other story!
Well, I do know more, and speak better English than Spanish, which is my native tongue, but it's not like I'm forgetting how to speak it.
Not me per se, but my Czech friend lived in the UK for most of her life and has since moved back to the Czech Republic where she lived till she was around 7ish. For the first few months of her moving back there, she still found herself correcting herself in English rather than Czech.
My have two native tongues: English and Spanish. My parents felt it would be advantageous if I were to be bilingual. I haven't lost my Spanish, but I will speak it with a bit of an accent. Also, my Spanish tends to be more "proper" than that of immigrants and so I am always self-conscious about not sounding too "uppity."
I haven't forgotten my native language per se as it is a very common language and I do like to watch movies in it, listen to the radio in my native language and keep in touch with friends and family from there but a lot of words and expressions I do forget and my grammar and writing skills are horrific ( I write down much better in English and Spanish than I do in my native language now which is quite shameful. :icon_redf) Also since I spend most of my days speaking English and Spanish I almost exclusively think and dream in those languages and often have trouble expressing myself in my native language. I obviously still understand it perfectly but I do sound odd speaking it (as if it's not natural) this does go away after a couple days back in the country though. I speak three languages fluently and notice that everytime I move to another country where one (or two) of the languages aren't spoken I tend to lose a lot of vocabulary, expressions and fluency in those languages especially if I stay long-term so I think it's normal. I do want to transmit those languages to my (future) children so I make sure to practise them as much as I can and always watch movies in their original version if they are from one of the countries whose language is one I know. My entire family lives in my home country though (including my parents and siblings) and barely speak English so not being able to speak my mother tongue is NOT an option really.
Oh yeah, one of my friends has a similar problem with sound more "proper" than immigrants. He's Japanese and he says that the his generation in Japan uses a lot more slang and English-infused words than he does.
