Can you forget a language you once spoke fluently?

Language fluency is the ability to express your views, opinions and needs without much effort. For language conversation that is used on a daily basis effortlessly, C2 level is not required.

People will forget a language once they speak it fluently. The ability to speak the previous language remains in the brain and will come to the surface if the person is living in an environment again where the previous language is spoken and the other language is not present. This will happen to all people in a couple of months.

For example, if French is one of the official languages. When you moved to an English-speaking area entirely then this group is called “Les Amis” = “The Friends” in French, this was not a case of mental disability

This happens with the people who move to a new nation and for whatever reason you are using their native language. This could be even moved as an adult but does not have reason to continue using their native language and rarely if ever returns to their native land.

In case you are multilingual with several L2 languages of fluency then you speak many languages at near-fluency and most language learners are better at learning the oral language with respect to the written language, especially if the written format is used with a different style than your own native language and when you are far from the visual learner. Change in pronunciation will also happen to all when you pick up written languages very quickly. 

If you need to stay in various countries, then it is essential to remember all the languages that you learned and not forget them. If you know one and you forget the other then it will be difficult for you. There are people with better qualifications with multiple languages.

Learning multiple languages can make you forget the languages you have learned and Learning a language is like anything else you will use it or lose it. Then you can forget a learned language which is called “language attrition.” In the 1980s, a whole body of research developed around the question of “why is it lost when a language is forgotten?“

Reasons to forget a learned language

• Depends on your age, which may make it more difficult for you to retain a learned language
• your motivation for language for keeping up your second language
• frequency of interaction with native speakers and the length of time you interacted with native speakers.
• You will be influenced by the dominant language and find yourself importing from your dominant language into your weaker language.

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