Were you every exposed to a language when you were young, however, have thought that you have forgotten it? The reality is, your brain has some foundation already set. The purpose of this post is to convey some recent experiences I have had on my trip to the USA regarding language learning and the brain which will illustrate how, learning a language is like riding a bike.
Remembering a language from your childhood
My mother is almost 80 years old and she spoke Ukrainian as a child. Now she has not used the language for most of her life. For the last 30 years she claims she has forgotten the Ukrainian language completely. She has repeatedly said she does not even remember a word.
However, I am in the USA visiting her now with my family and when we speak Polish, which is a different language from Ukrainian, she can understand us perfectly. Not only does she remember everything, but at some level she can interpolate between two related languages, that is Polish and Ukrainian and come up with an understanding of our conversation.
This anecdotally confirms one of my beliefs that most memory problems are a retrieval problem. That is, memories are formed fairly easy and stay with us a lifetime, however, the issue is to call up the information when we need it in a meaningful way.
This is why again I think that language learning a us a little like riding a bike, once you have learned it you just need to get back in the saddle.
Learning a language as an adult and not forgetting it
I studied French for seven years however, have not used it in twenty. After being in Paris this week, it was not a big deal for me to understand what was being said. I do not think I could form a perfect French sentence, but with a little time in the country I am confident that I could speak French. Your brain does not forget what you have learned.
If you have been exposed to a language use it
If you have every been exposed to a language as an adult or a child, have the confidence to try to learn it. Do not be afraid of failing or you have forgotten it, learn it. What if you lived in say a Spanish area as a child but never spoke Spanish? Why not try to learn it? I think subconsciously your brain as picked up a lot. Your memory has almost infinite capacity to store and retrieve. It does not matter if your memory was formed as a child or as an adult. Your memory will be different for a language your learned a child more native, but that does not mean adult exposure is less useful.
If you calculate all the possible connections your memory has formed in your lifetime, you should be how shocked how rich you are in terms of neural connections. So much of your brain is latent just waiting for you to use it.
Many people as me should they use hypnosis to recall experiences or languages they were exposed to once. Sure if you want, but there is not need to. Just simply, reimmerse yourself again. If you herd Spanish as a child take a trip to Argentina. If your parents spoke Polish or Ukrainian or Russian, take a trip to Europe and try it out.
Here is a study that confirms my thesis.
Remembering a language from your childhood
Two researcher did a study of children who were exposed to languages when they were young, yet moved abroad in their childhood.
The results were very enlightening. Here is an external resources that validates the above:
- Remembering childhood languages
Let me me know what you think of this idea or if you have every had a similar experience, I would be interested to hear about your exposure to a language as a child.
12 responses to Remembering a language from your childhood
I originated from Panama; I spoke Spanish all my childhood life until about 8yrs old; After my father past my mother married a man from the Army and we left and came to US. When I was in rolled in school the teachers could not understand me so they told my mother to stop speaking Spanish to me and force me to speak only English; I still have the language in my head but to speak it out is hard because I just can’t put it all together to make a sentence.
I realy want my language pack I feel that it was not fear that I was force to lose a part of my nationality and I want to get back what was taken from me.
Interesting story, in my opinion you have a lot of laten Spanish and it will not be no problem to learn it again. I would just start using it and studying it on your own. Watching Spanish TV and listening to the Radio in Spanish. If you expose yourself to the language and study it a little it will not be a problem. I know others in a similar circumstance and and with patience they became native speakers again.
I thought the article was very interesting. A language I was exposed to as a child, around age 8, was sign language. Use to be homeschooled and had a coop with many deaf people attending. So naturally there was a class for sign language. I remember maybe a dozen signs and the alphabet but when my teacher,at a public school, made a sign to focus she used the ASL sign for sleep. Immediately ‘sleep’ popped into my head, even 7 years later. Signs easily ‘come back’ to me when I see others sign.
Very interesting, I think it is in many cases about memory retrieval as the memories are still latent in some way.
I was born in Sweden and stayed till I was 7, since originally I’m from Iceland my mother believed it would be best if we would move to Iceland. I lived with my mother and sister and brother which had already moved back to Iceland before us.
At home we spoke Icelandic and elsewhere Swedish, because my mother thought that if we didn’t use Icelandic regularly we would not learn it and that wouldn’t be so good.
So now I’m 18 living in Iceland but I have never been able to pick up Swedish, it had just fade away but I’m interested to see if I could somehow pick some of it up again.
I think you would have no problem to learn it. It is there latent in your brain, I do not think it is gone at all, most memory issues are retrieval problems not formation. The language is there and if you relearn it you will most likely have no accent at all.
This is off topic and on topic, but Ukrainian is kind of a mixture of Russian, Polish, and a little Finnish and Lithuanian. But mostly Russian and Polish, Ukraine was apart of Russia, but when the U.S.S.R collapsed, they made their own country, and then attempted to invade Poland for land. The Invasion was successful and non – successful on their end, they got some land, but all of the land they conquered, the people only spoke Polish, and the Ukrainians still spoke Russian, so it kind of fused together… There were Lithuanians living in Eastern Poland at the time too, but I don’t get how Finnish got in it…..
And if you learned a language when you were young, or exposed to it, you remember it. Even if you say you don’t you do, everything you see, touch, hear, or smell, you remember permanently, it’s stored in your brain… Extracting the information is a entirely different matter, usually you’ll need to be exposed to it or exposed to a language that’s similar again and you’ll recognize it as native.
About languages and storing in your brain I tend to agree. It is in your brain it is a retrieval problem.
Ukrainians are Eastern Slavic people with some mixing of other cultures. Ukrainians are Ukrainians. Poles are western Slavic with some mixing of Celtic and German and Ukrainian, Jewish etc. Every group of people are a Heinz 57 of many other peoples and I think we are all better for it.
Yes, no country is truely unique, everyone is truely a fuse from others.
But Poland and Ukraine are different, being bordered between Eastern and Western Slavics, they were able to communicate, and thus are literally a small blend of the two. The blend is small, but is there, but some of Western Ukraine is actually Western Slavic, because it was conquered when Ukraine attempted invasion.
And, a question, how are Poles a blend of Ukrainian? Most of Ukraine was originally apart of Poland but the Russian Empire invaded which eventually became the U.S.S.R and then Ukraine finally appeared in 1991 August 24th when the U.S.S.R broke apart.
Easy, many Poles that lived in Ukraine with spouses from Ukraine returned home to Poland. I am Polish but also Ukrainian as are many people I know in Krakow. Ukrainians are the largest minority in Poland and Poles and Ukrainians marry. Again I know people like this. It is very common. I live in Krakow Poland. Many of my friends are part Jewish or have German names. Poles are really a mixed bag as much as some people do not want to admitt this. Many Poles that remained in Ukraine have Ukrainian spouses. There are more Ukrainians than Poles and it is all a matter of perspective. Many old fashion stubborn Poles do not like to admit this, but this is ridiculous. They feel that Lviv is their city. But if you consider that over 90% of the population in the Lviv oblast was Ukrainian that is not true. Only the old town was Polish occupied by Poland. I am Polish but it would be naive to say Poland was always in the right. If you use that logic we should give back many Polish cities to the Germans. Peace and love the future is about building bridges with Germans and Ukrainians and be part of a greater more peaceful Europe.
I was born an Air Force brat and moved to Weisbaden, Germany when I was 2 weeks old. We lived with a German family who spoke no English. The mother was sort of my nanny while my parents worked and I spoke German very well with their family. We moved back to the states when I was 5 years old and I have not been exposed to any German since. I would love to go back for a visit and want to re learn the language. Any suggestions on where to find a good path to take on this?
I also have a love for the language and country.
I think you have an advantage Chances are if you were exposed to the language, even in childhood and did not speak it, you have some pathways in your brain that someone who was not does not have. I could go in more detail but no need to. That is the good news. The bad news is learning a language is still blood, sweat and tears. You will need to set your expectations low. You know German has a case system, but not as complex as other languages and orderly and logical. The words get really long also. However, English and German are closely related so it will be easier than most, but still work.
Look, if I were you I would start amping up on vocabulary any way possible. Some people use mnemonics and others flashcards. I prefer flashcards. Even with no grammar and a lot of vocabulary you can be understood and understand. Focus on learning words. After you are at a basic level of conversation than and only than you can you start learning grammar.
Also try to use music or whatever fits well with you to learn. Also listening to radio as opposed to TV is a good way to get a language in your brain.
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