| I have some bad news for you about human memory. It’s possible to forget your mother’s name. In fact you will forget her name if you don’t think about her for enough years. You forget absolutely everything that goes unused for long enough.
I have met many people where were native speakers of Russian as children, teenagers and even as adults who could not… …speak it at all after many years of not speaking Russian. This is not the place for a detailed article on how human memory works, but just remember this. You will forget everything that goes unused in your mind for long enough. I met a 50 year old woman who was a native speaker of Russian but had quit speaking it ten years earlier when her father died. She couldn’t even carry on a simple conversation in Russian. I have also met many other native speakers of Russian who had totally forgotten Russian after many years of not speaking it. If you are worried about forgetting Russian, my suggestion is to switch your movie watching and TV watching to Russian TV and movies. You will be just as well entertained and you will keep your language understanding skills. |
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I have little problem speaking Chinese even after living in U.S for 12 years and with no contact with any other Chinese person for an extended period. I only talk with my mom occasionally over the phone, like once or twice in a month.
But I can’t react as well with other Chinese other than my mom over the phone because my inner talking and thoughts are completely in English. I have to be very focused to do so.
Hi Eva,
It’s a good thing you still talk to your mom in Chinese, otherwise you would have lost even more of your Chinese skills.
You might enjoy finding a Chinese club, or trying to do an online language exchange from someone from China. Look for Chinese clubs on Meetup.com.
Language exchange doesn’t work for beginners, but it would work for you since you already know Chinese well, but you are just a little rusty.
My girlsfriend’s step-mother is a native Russian who has lived in the U.S. for about 15 years. But now her Russian accent in English makes her almost incomprehensible, but when she travels to Russia to visit family, everyone thinks she is a foreigner and can barely understand her. It is a sort of cruel trick from a fading memory.
Hi John,
Sadly, I think so. It’s also a muscular thing. The muscles you use to speak Russian are different than the ones you use to speak English. Use them or loose them.