Forgetting Words In Your Native Language Is A Good Sign

Brain, Forgetting, Language learning, Languages, Learning

As a polyglot, I’ve come to speak or read on a daily basis a multitude of languages.

I sometimes wake up speaking English, switch to Japanese for work, read an article in Korean before meeting up with French friends. Sounds great but there’s a problem with that too.

I’ve come to “forget” words I knew.

Or, to be more precise, they are stuck on the tip of my tongue.

For non-language learners, this is laughable. But for anybody learning a foreign language for long enough, this feels like a real problem.

Could you forget your native language?

If you live in your native country, the risk of forgetting it altogether is rather low. But the probability of forgetting common words stays really high.

“I… 기억한다… 覚えてる…记得… me souviens… ah right! I remember!”

In reality, unless you have some kind of brain damage or grow old and get…

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The Disconnect Between Speaking, Reading, and Writing

Language, Language classes, Language fluency, Language learning, Language skills, Speaking tests

Tips from a Language Lover

One problem I noticed early on in my language learning career was that I was always better and more comfortable reading than writing and especially speaking.

One problem I noticed early on in my language learning career was that I was
always better and more comfortable reading and writing than speaking.

I never really had much trouble writing short paragraphs and reading comprehension
exercises were fairly easy. Heck, when I had to write a research paper, my only
real concern was getting close to the required length.

But speaking was a completely different monster. Most times when I was asked
a question in class, I would respond with my go-to phrase “je ne sais
pas” (I don’t know). Listening exercises were a special torture
because I was so used to hearing my classmates slowly pronounce every single
syllable with a weak to non-existent accent that hearing a native…

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