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Absolutely. Have met multiple people who could not speak their native language after a long absence from their homeland. In a few cases I've met people who cou

by graeme 2y ago

Absolutely. Have met multiple people who could not speak their native language after a long absence from their homeland. In a few cases I've met people who could speak no language well. Their native tongue was gone or degraded but they had not achieved strong proficiency in English or the local language. One was a tailor in Montreal. Tried English and French, they were so so at both and said they were from Italy originally. I speak some Italian so tried that. They struggled more than in English or French. They looked around 80, likely had been many decades.

whamlastxmas 2y ago
I think the 80 years old part is the biggest contributor there
- graeme 2y ago
  Perhaps, but he was still a skilled tailor. I've also met much younger people with native proficiency in no language. Not many, perhaps only 3 total in my life but they exist. It would be interesting to know what happens to native language skills if they returned to a native environment though. I expect they'd recover fairly quickly, at least in younger people.
FpUser 2y ago
>"In a few cases I've met people who could speak no language well. Their native tongue was gone or degraded but they had not achieved strong proficiency in English or the local language." Me, me, me ;) My spoken Russian has somewhat degraded. And my English and "strong proficiency" are worlds apart. 30 years of living in USSR and then 30 years in Canada.
rahimnathwani 2y ago
Their native tongue was gone or degraded but they had not achieved strong proficiency in English or the local language. This reminds me of two things: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23175216 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23175216 https://www.quora.com/Every-service-at-Google-is-either-deprecated-or-not-ready-yet-Google-engineering-proverb-What-does-it-mean https://www.quora.com/Every-service-at-Google-is-either-depr...
- klipt 2y ago
  "Don't half ass two things instead of whole assing one thing."
o11c 2y ago
I also know a tailor who is neither fluent in English nor his original language. But in my case I know enough over time and from the family to state: this was some sort of life-long speech defect, not a matter of learning.
- graeme 2y ago
  You know that's a fair objection. My sample is small and I didn't know the tailor when younger. In the other cases I couldn't know how skilled they were in their native language when they spoke it.

by graeme 2y ago

whamlastxmas 2y ago

I think the 80 years old part is the biggest contributor there

graeme 2y ago
Perhaps, but he was still a skilled tailor. I've also met much younger people with native proficiency in no language. Not many, perhaps only 3 total in my life but they exist. It would be interesting to know what happens to native language skills if they returned to a native environment though. I expect they'd recover fairly quickly, at least in younger people.

FpUser 2y ago

>"In a few cases I've met people who could speak no language well. Their native tongue was gone or degraded but they had not achieved strong proficiency in English or the local language." Me, me, me ;) My spoken Russian has somewhat degraded. And my English and "strong proficiency" are worlds apart. 30 years of living in USSR and then 30 years in Canada.

rahimnathwani 2y ago

Their native tongue was gone or degraded but they had not achieved strong proficiency in English or the local language. This reminds me of two things: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23175216 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23175216 https://www.quora.com/Every-service-at-Google-is-either-deprecated-or-not-ready-yet-Google-engineering-proverb-What-does-it-mean https://www.quora.com/Every-service-at-Google-is-either-depr...

klipt 2y ago
"Don't half ass two things instead of whole assing one thing."

o11c 2y ago

I also know a tailor who is neither fluent in English nor his original language. But in my case I know enough over time and from the family to state: this was some sort of life-long speech defect, not a matter of learning.

graeme 2y ago
You know that's a fair objection. My sample is small and I didn't know the tailor when younger. In the other cases I couldn't know how skilled they were in their native language when they spoke it.