When i was younger i use to able to speak tagalog (one of the languages from the philippines) and after i came to the states and started living here and learn to speak english, i completly forgot how to speak my 1st language. Does anybody know a reason for this?

Thanks in advance!

That has happened to quite a few people I've known, from Germans to Viets. They attribute it to not using it as often as they normally would've. If you haven't been gone from it *too* long, then you should be able to readily pick it up again.

well i used to live in taiwan and went to a taiwanese school untill the end of primary, in 1996 i visited a few times since, my mandarin is a bit shaky and stilted but i have the feeling that if i was to go back for a few months i would be back to full native speaker level.

I havent spoken it in about 13 years. Sometimes when my mom talks in her language, i can sometimes tell what she is saying, but not all the words i can pick up.

if you were to go back to "the old country" as it were, you'd probably pick it up again in 6 months because you still have an ear for it, so it's not completely unintelligable to you.

That usually won't happen if you are older and stop speaking your language, but if you were little then it's extremely possible. The same happened to me when I stopped speaking Polish after I started American schooling, now I can understand what everyone says in Polish, and I can read, but I have a terrible vocabulary and shaky speaking.

I know an American, an English professor, who went to Germany at the age of 45. After 2 years, he had a very strong accent and had forgotten a lot of the English language.

quote:Originally posted by LiQkUiD:

When i was younger i use to able to speak tagalog (one of the languages from the philippines) and after i came to the states and started living here and learn to speak english, i completly forgot how to speak my 1st language. Does anybody know a reason for this?

Thanks in advance!

It's pretty possible you forget when you are not in touch with it. But the system stays there in your brain. It's just inactive. If you started with the language again, you'd pick it up rapidly. So no worries. Make sure you go back to it. It's such a pity to lose a language.

quote:Originally posted by iamthewalrus789:

I know an American, an English professor, who went to Germany at the age of 45. After 2 years, he had a very strong accent and had forgotten a lot of the English language.

that's not very likely IMO

quote:Originally posted by iamthewalrus789:

I know an American, an English professor, who went to Germany at the age of 45. After 2 years, he had a very strong accent and had forgotten a lot of the English language.

I had a similar experience. I spent a year in Sweden (from when I was 16 1/2 to when I was 17 1/2), and when I came back to the United States, I had a very difficult time comprehending English and forming grammatical sentences. I am 19 now, and have been home now for a year and a half. Sometimes I still make slips, saying things with the right English words, but using Swedish grammar rules. Sometimes I even slip and use the wrong word, which may be a false cognate or even just the Swedish word for something. I also often speak Swedish first if someone wakes me up at night, and mumble in my sleep in what my boyfriend says is clearly not English.

[This message has been edited by MoscowIsNotInRussia (edited 01-24-2004).]