Comments on: Is It Possible To Forget Completely?

By: taijuando

taijuando — Sun, 11 Aug 2013 11:28:07 +0000

With guitar I try to play every day not necessarily for mastery. Soeetimes I only play for five minutes. First of all, I like it and in a way I’m immunizing myself against forgetting. I create little islands for future land based invasions.

By: Michael DiStefano

Michael DiStefano — Fri, 09 Aug 2013 20:29:22 +0000

One has to wonder whether the knowledge resides somewhere very deep in your subconscious memory. I would really like to see studies of these people who have “forgotten” a language they once knew well as they try to “re-learn” it. I suspect that their learning curve would look very different from that of an absolute novice.

By: ajatt

ajatt — Thu, 08 Aug 2013 19:00:51 +0000

“with enough time and lack of practice, a fluent person can forget even to the point of absolute beginnerhood.” t.co/6fdMuBbhLK

By: Eh

Eh — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 21:18:26 +0000

That’s pretty much my worst fear – that my English will deteriorate and eventually disappear. That’s why I’ve resolved to still read a lot of books in English, write a lot, speak with English friends, etc, while I’m living in Japan. And yet still get copious amounts of Japanese in. What do you guys think?

By: Cathryn Mataga

Cathryn Mataga — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:55:34 +0000

Yeah this can happen to Japanese coming to the USA. Though I think with my aunt it was that the Japanese language had changed rapidly during the 50’s and 60’s and when she went back she was confused. She was understandable in English, but always had a thick Japanese accent. Really, most people never get near native level in a learned language. If you just let time take it’s course and don’t work on it, I think this is what happens.
Me, I think I forgot all the genders of all my high school German vocab. Though oddly sometimes German words come bubbling back when I’m trying to construct a sentence even now. Not sure what this means.

By: Nagoya Blue

Nagoya Blue — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 03:45:58 +0000

I met a Japanese woman who’d lived in the U.K for many years…..my Japanese friend found it difficult to understand her Japanese.

By: Nagoya Blue

Nagoya Blue — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 03:44:29 +0000

No grammar Nazis, please. We all make mistakes, but the important part (communicating his idea) came through.

Never made a mistake? Ever native speakers mess up in normal speech every day.

By: Miss Language Learning

Miss Language Learning — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 19:08:29 +0000

Yup Sarkoth I agree with you. The first sentence sounded “weird” to me.
PS: “on” her part.

By: Agent J

Agent J — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 22:27:41 +0000

Khatz has blogged about this before.

By: Sarkoth131

Sarkoth131 — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 19:38:40 +0000

“Sometimes I imagine myself in Japan, having forgotten English.” Sounds a little more right to me but idk.

By: fergal

fergal — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 10:10:25 +0000

This Japanese soldier lived in the Ukraine from ages 20-80 and couldn’t speak Japanese when he came home.

photoguide.jp/log/2006/04/losing-your-language/

By: zohan

zohan — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 06:18:09 +0000

I don’t know either, it must’ve been some kind of bad joke from her part. Just ignore her.

By: harvey

harvey — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 02:01:54 +0000

I know an American guy totally fluent in Japanese woh has lived in Japan for 20+ years, he’s around 50 years old. His wife is Japanese, but they lived in the States together for many years when they were in their 20s. She spoke English very well then. Now though, she doesn’t speak -any- English. Their daughter grew up in Japan but has managed to become mostly bilingual because her father only speaks to her in English while her mom speaks to her in Japanese, and the girl is smart. She works for a multinational now in management.

Anyway, so yeah, his wife totally forgot English. She had no reason to speak it at home, her husband and child both speak Japanese, she lives in Japan out in the boonies… there you have it!

I used to speak basic French but that’s gone now too.

By: ライトニング

ライトニング — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 19:38:40 +0000

What’s wrong with it?

By: Miss Language Learning

Miss Language Learning — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 16:14:47 +0000

It’s horrible when that happens. Speaking one language is better than “getting by” in two. I bet she sounded Japanese, too.

By: Miss Language Learning

Miss Language Learning — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 16:13:16 +0000

You’re getting there. Forgotten English? What the heck :p

By: ライトニング

ライトニング — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 04:53:34 +0000

Sometimes I imagine myself in Japan, with forgotten English.

By: Jake

Jake — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 20:53:01 +0000

I knew these words sounded familiar! Thanks for your post Khatz, good point you bring up. I guess it doesn't really matter if you forget everything, but rather enough to where you can't even have a conversation and such. I guess, in a way, that's just as bad as forgetting all of it. Thanks again, for bringing this up, you da man!

By: Caren

Caren — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 20:31:54 +0000

When I was little, I visited Portugal a lot. My parents had a friend there who used to speak French fluently – he had lived in France for many years as a teenager. When I met him, he had forgotten everything (except very basic words like greetings) because he hadn’t gone back to France in over 20 years, and it was rare for him to find anybody to speak with over there, nor did he read books or watch tv or do anything in French.

So yeah, I believe that with enough time and lack of practice, a fluent person can forget even to the point of absolute beginnerhood.

By: Apple Head

Apple Head — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 17:57:49 +0000

A couple of years ago, I had an opportunity to go to Japan that ended up not working out. A friend of mine told me about a lady I could correspond with to help me out when I got to Tokyo. Upon receiving an e-mail from this lady, I figured she was Japanese because her English was so broken and degenerated. Nope! She was American, born and raised, yet her English was absolutely appalling. She moved to Japan when she was 23, I think, and got married and stayed there for another 20+ years. The sad part is that she’s one of those people who never quite got the hang of Japanese despite living there. She’s subpar at both languages and I think that’s a terrible place to be.