Do people really start to lose their mother tongue when living in a foreign country?

Question

My step son just called me. He invited me to go to Basle at the weekend. I said I had already arranged with my daughter (his step-sister) to go to a Hamam. 'What?', he asked.
'A Turkish bath,' I replied.
I was amazed! He's Turkish!

Well, we all live in Switzerland and we all speak German. My daughter was born here, but English is her mother tongue. She also speaks German and Spanish and some French.. My step-son speaks Kurdish, Turkish,German and some French and English. I speak English, French, German and some Spanish and Turkish.
Please answer the question!

Answer 1

You don't lose it but sometimes I had trouble remembering the English for certain words,could only think of the Dutch-it's weird!

Answer 2

I think it depends on the person; a Spanish lady I know insists that she has lived in the UK since she was a child, but still speaks Spanish with no difficulty at all, and even sounds Spanish when she speaks English. On the other hand, one of my close friends was adopted from Vietnam as a war orphan when aged 7; he now speaks not a word of Vietnamese and, indeed, speaks English with what everyone would call a "posh" British accent.

Answer 3

If you do not speak or hear your language for over 20 years, yes, you will forget it for a while after returning. This is very rare though since most people have contact with their native tongues and written materials at least sometimes throughout the years.

Your brain can become programed to acquire a new language at the expense of your first language. Thus you will notice people mixing words and such with both or all of their languages.

Answer 4

I'm English and have lived in France for 16 years now. When I went back to the UK for a year to help integrate a company we'd acquired, at first I had a bit of difficulty being truly fluent in English.

You do find that your ease of speaking the mother tongue kind of slips away over the years. It's like the words don't come as quickly when you talk, and you lose some vocabulary.

However, it's a bit like riding a bike, it all comes back very quickly once you spend time back in the mother country.

Answer 5

It depends...I am Hungarian and I moved to Germany when I was 3. My parents always spoke HUngarian with me at home, so I still know how to speak it.
But if you don't use that language at all, you might start to forget.
I moved to the states by myself when i was 17 and stayed there 6 years. I hardly ever spoke German, and after a while I realized that I was struggling with some words when I was speaking to friends from Germany.

So, it all depends on how much you use the language after you have moved. If you dont speak it at all, there is a possibility that you will forget it, but it would take years

Answer 6

You dont loose it but you might forget the odd word or find it hard to put a sentence together. I was born in italy and moved to wales when i was 14, i've been here 16 years now and still speak italian to my family and friend but as i dont use it as much i need to think about it before i say it, in a way its like when i first moved here i used to translate what i wanted to say from italian to english but now its the other way around as english is the language i use ( think and dream in)all the time

Answer 7

I certainly lost command of my own language while living in another country for 6 years. The other language became the automatic choice when trying to think of a word based on a feeling.

Since returning to an English speaking country it has returned again, it doesn't disappear for ever.

I think it depends on how much you use the language. I didn't have much connection with English speakers or English language text while abroad.

Answer 8

If only it were that way. I have been in living in Prague for four and a half years and still speak English all the time but wish I didn't however the local language is so damn hard. Czech's are all geniuses if they can speak it.

Answer 9

Your English is in all risk greater suited than 50% of the yank inhabitants, so as long as you easily CAN communicate a language I see no concern. confident, may be great in case you ought to communicate chinese language, yet once you do no longer, then you definately do purely no longer. I easily have chinese language friends who're interior the perfect comparable concern as you, and that they do no longer seem stricken via it. besides, that's often greater suited than a pal of mine, he's from Turkey, residing interior the Netherlands considering that he replaced into 8, and he can neither communicate Turkish nor Dutch fluently.

Answer 10

yes.
i grew up in Berlin ... lived there til i was twelve and moved to the U.S.
When you move to a country where all there is is english tv, radio, magazines... EVERYTHING then you start to lose it. I doubt you could lose it completely, but i find myself looking for words when i do speak german with my family. I would be like "what does this mean" and they would say... what.. i cannot believe you forgot that. hahah

Answer 11

yes. I've met a Brazilian English teacher here in Brazil whom everybody think to be American, because of her accent. She lived in the US for about 11 years! That's a long time...Although some people who lived in a foreign coutry didn't lose their mother tongue. That's because they didn't spend too much time abroad.

hope it helps^^