Has anyone else become increasingly worse at English (or your native language) after moving to Japan? I guess it’s inevitable since I mostly consume Japanese content and work for a Japanese company but I’ve only been here for around 3 years so I didn’t expect to be grasping for words when I want to describe something in English. I’m married to a native Japanese speaker but we communicate about 50/50 in Japanese and English. In another few years, I might have to admit that Japanese has overtaken English as my most proficient language.
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Just curious to hear from other “bye-linguals”.
EDIT: Thank you for the replies! It’s actually very reassuring that I’m not the only one experiencing “language attrition” (which I hadn’t even heard of until now, so thank you!) Honestly, I haven’t been making as much of an effort to keep in touch with my English-speaking friends and family back home, so I will see things go once I do.
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Boku would call that very normal.
As a tri-lingual and learning japanese as my forth language in japan, can definitely confirm my other languages are getting worse.
That’s just how it is. My daily life is all in Japanese except for work that is in English.
My native language of French is barely used and I also experience grasping for words the few times I get to talk with my friends and family from back home. It kind of sucks.
Not only is this normal, there’s even a name for it and research done about it! I’m not sure if I’m allowed to post any links, but if you look up “language attrition” you can read all about it.
I notice this is a bit in myself as well, but it’s especially noticeable over longer periods. My parents are native Spanish speakers but they’ve been living in the US for more than 40 years, and their accent has become much more Americanized (my mom’s childhood friends make fun of her for speaking Spanish with an American accent) and their vocabulary much simpler.
It’s kind of scary, but language attrition can supposedly be prevented by reading books, watching movies, etc. in English.
they call it “language attrition” akin to how your muscles revert and become weak agan after quitting the gym
happened to myself too, whenever I go back to my home country people say that I speak weird like a foreigner with jumbled up grammar and peculiar diction (word choices)
There was a stretch around 2017 that I went weeks, sometimes months without speaking my native language. I definitely felt it harder to find the correct words to express myself.
Definitely common. But if you go back to using your native language like if you talk more with your family back home, you’ll recover your language fast.
I’m fortunate enough that I used English in a professional setting even in Japan, so language attrition in itself wasn’t that bad. But I didn’t have any non-work foreign friends that I could speak with. I’ve always had online friends that I’d chat with on a daily basis, but vocalization is probably more important than I thought since everything (mood/expressiveness/etc…) improved once I made some friends that I can speak with in English on a regular basis.
tl;dr – Kind of, yes. Use English at work & find English speaking friends to minimize risks.
Opposite. My English is improving
It is normal. I make sure to read books in English everyday, and I’ve been talking in English everyday as well (to my baby, who is too young to respond, but it gets me using the language). If you don’t use it, while you’ll likely never lose your native language, it will become much more difficult to use.
Very normal I’d you’re using Japanese.
I think the one thing I noticed was that my spelling started to falter. I had to think how a word was spelt.
Happens to me too, though all the media I consume is English. I didn’t have a great command of vocabulary to begin with, though.
I’ve added a lot of Japanese hand gestures over the years lol. Batsu, come here, me? People must think I’m weird back home
Can confirm, my English is getting worse even when consuming media exclusively in English 🙃
I haven’t had that problem. My Japanese husband was already fluent in English when we met, so we’ve always spent a lot more time conversing in English rather than Japanese. My first couple of years here I worked as an English teacher. After I became a partner in an international trading company I hired a Japanese assistant who was fluent in English. My problem is that I’ve spent too much time around people who speak English, so my Japanese should be better than it is considering how long I’ve been living here.
Not really. You might find your English becomes less fluent temporarily when you’re not exercising the muscle as much. It comes back very quickly when you do.
I’ve been here close to 15 years, and in my experience the two languages settle a little more in respect to one another. You get quicker at switching. My biggest issue is actually that my English is, to people at home, now noticeably more “international” (they would say American).
Nah, man, me English are just finest 👍
Seriously, though, I think you’ve made a statement about how good your Japanese is, and not one about your English. As someone who is not at all inclined toward human languages (I’ve studied five, can speak 1.5), you have my awe.
Yes, and my job is to teach English so 💀💀💀
Actually, not. I attribute my deteriorating English to just getting old. I just turned 68 and have noticed that my vocabulary is shrinking. So far nothing else has, to my great relief!
Very common.
Been living in Japan for 10 years now. My native language is Dutch but I rarely use or speak it anymore. English has completely taken over. (work, media, friends, etc) The only time Dutch still comes out is when I get angry and curse at myself. I think in English, write my notes in English, etc. As for Japanese, even with all the English, I have a bad habit of replying in Japanese, to Japanese people, when they are talking in English to me. Just comes out first.
On those rare occasions I do have to speak Dutch, it feels like I am struggling. I have to think about my words and if I am not careful, what I say will be filled with English.
Whenever I hear this I tend to feel like it’s a humble brag. Like, “Look at me, I’ve assimilated into Japanese culture so well that I’m forgetting my native language!”
I’ve lived here for a long time, and I don’t speak much English on a daily basis except for with my kid. A few family members have commented that I speak slower, and I’ve struggled to find words a few times, but it’s temporary. I’ve never felt like my English has gotten worse or that Japanese will overtake English as my most proficient language.
My cockney accent turned into the queen’s English after living here for 10 years. I get the why you talking like a posh twat? from my mates back home.
Me fail English? That’s unpossible!
I wouldn’t say I got worse per se but I definitely have trouble conjuring up certain words sometimes. The Japanese word will be the first to jump to mind and I have to scramble a bit to find the other word LOL.
Not with English and Japanese, but I sometimes find myself taking a few seconds to think of the German (native language) for the English one. For example when I talk to my mom on the phone and explain her stuff in German that I usually deal with in English, it can get quite stuttery.
Listening is fine of course and I do consume English and German media daily
Somewhat. I’m sure it’s due to age, too. I am definitely not up to date with the lingo people have been using over the past decade, though. I didn’t know what the whole “L” thing was ’til like last year probably.
It happens but you’ll basically never become unable to use it, you just forget how to talk good with the big words.
Oh yeah. My wife, who is super fluent in English, will ask me about the meaning of a word now and then. They are usually uncommon words and I’ve come to realize that after 20 years here that there are many words you just don’t use and that I’ve now forgotten.
This is compounded by the fact that 95% of my foreign friends are non-native English speakers and that I work 90% in Japanese at work.
She’s caught on now too. If there’s a pause between her question and my answer, it’s a sign that I’m furiously trying to remember enough to explain it to her properly.
Definitely. I find that my mouth muscles often cannot keep up with my brain when I try to speak English these days. I end up sort of mumbling.
I also find myself forgetting some word in English and then remembering them first in Japanese.
Problem for me is that my job doesn’t involve any verbal communication (in any language) and I live with my Japanese fiance whose English is great but not quite native level. Plus, I usually talk in English and she responds in Japanese. We understand each other perfectly fine it’s just how it ended up being for us and I often forget what language we/I/she were/was speaking in at any given moment.
End result is that I’m not sure I can hold a normal, long, and relatively deep conversation in English or Japanese anymore without slipping up.