Отправлено: 14.07.14 08:58. Заголовок: Can we lose our native language?

Many people are under the impression that we can lose our native language. Much has been made about Sgt Bowe Bergdahl who had been in Taliban captivity until recently. He has noticable forgotten English; which is understandable given that he was held hostage for about 5 years. Here is an article: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-27690891 Since then other people have weighed in on this particular subject giving their own stories: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28022790

Now I am a little skeptical about this. Even though I now dream in Russian and think in Russian, I havent really forgotten English all that much, thank God because I am a teacher of English and a native speaker. What I can say though is that some English phrases, idioms, grammatical structures and so on are dormant. If I do not use them or read news or a book or watch English TV then I can really lose it to the extant that it is not readily available. After some thought, I can of course use it. But to lose a native language entirely, I am not so sure.

There are some interesting ideas though like Kristina Schmale O'Hagan, Ireland who discusses German and American expletives. This could definately be added to Russian mat, you know what I mean.

So learners of foreign languages, where do you stand on this topic?

 Отправлено: 14.07.14 22:24. Заголовок: I think the Bowe Ber..

I think the Bowe Bergdalh is a great example of language immersion. He had no choice but to speak his captors language. He had to learn fast and fluency was in his best interest. That being said, I'm not sure that Bowe Bergdahl is a good example of most people with a language challenge.

In the United States I've noticed that people that emigrate into highly assimilative areas quickly lose their mother tongue. An example would be Armenians that move into southern California. Southern Cal aggressively assimilates newcomers, making them into residents overnight. As such, those emigrants quit using their mother tongue and quickly learn "California" English.

Other places are different. In States with large numbers of emigrants the mother tongue lasts longer and can even become exclusive. The Belair neighborhood in Houston is a great example. The "street" language there is Mandarin. Street signs are in both English and Mandarin. Go into a convenience store and you'd better have Mandarin language skills otherwise you're leaving.

Another great example for this would be New York. In New York a person could move into a culturally similar neighborhood. That means someone from Venice could move into an Italian speaking neighborhood, a place where they would never have to learn English. There would also be a fair amount of travel between the neighborhood and the old country, thereby keeping the language "fresh."

Borders, or frontiers, present another issue. In my home State of Texas there are vast numbers of people that speak only Spanish. They were born in Texas, raised in Texas and have never learned English. Even though they are in an English speaking country they are in an almost exclusively Spanish speaking region. They have no need of English language skills. They retain everything because they lose nothing.

Also, there are now any number of immigrant Meetup groups. You're Russian and you've just moved to Atlanta. Get on Meetup and find other Russians. Get together and speak Russian with them. Meet their families and everyone can celebrate holidays together. It's a great opportunity to build a sense of community and use the "old" language. Also, it is a great opportunity to teach languages to children and insure that the next generation can speak Russian.

For someone moving into a solely English speaking environment it would be tough. The mother tongue would be put in an inferior position and Englsih would dominate. Language skills would atrophy. I believe that, after a time, the "old" language might disappear but I think it could be resuscitated with out much difficulty.