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I grew up in Romania. Spoke German at home, it was my Muttersprache (German minority in Romania). Went to a German school, but learned Romanian in K-12 there, s

by uwehn 2y ago

I grew up in Romania. Spoke German at home, it was my Muttersprache (German minority in Romania). Went to a German school, but learned Romanian in K-12 there, spoke it fluently. Left Romania when I was 18. I can still understand most when I listen (I can watch Romanian movies not dubbed). I can read it and understand most of what I read. But I cannot form sentences anymore, cannot speak it for the life of me. Pretty strange. I guess it needs effort to revive it in one's brain.

blindseeker 2y ago
Same here! Just that my family emigrated when I was 5 years old, plus my Romanian native mother passed when I was 14. this was some 25 years ago. Now, I do understand Romanian media, but can’t speak past a simple „Buna ziua, ce mai faci“. Interestingly, some 18 years ago I went to intern in Mexico. After 6 months there, I was quite fluent in Spanish. But when I wanted to think of a Romanian word, all that popped up was Spanish. Pretty wild how the brain works. (Romanian, Spanish, French, Italian, … are all Latin influenced languages, btw.)
- numba888 2y ago
  Don't worry, you will get speaking skills with practice quickly. I think you can talk to OpenAI app in Romanian. Not sure. After not speaking for 3/4 of my life I understand only about one half of audio news and bit more of text.
- wjholden 2y ago
  I learned a little Spanish growing up in the USA. As I learned French as an adult, when I didn't know a French word, the Spanish word would often come to me. Now I'm learning German, and often the French word comes to me when I don't know a German word. However, I've also struggled to speak French again because the German often comes to my head first. It has been amusing to observe that one doesn't learn a third language as a strict subset of the second. For example, I know a lot more French than German, but I know the German "Tierarzt" (veterinarian) but not the French equivalent.

by uwehn 2y ago

blindseeker 2y ago

Same here! Just that my family emigrated when I was 5 years old, plus my Romanian native mother passed when I was 14. this was some 25 years ago. Now, I do understand Romanian media, but can’t speak past a simple „Buna ziua, ce mai faci“. Interestingly, some 18 years ago I went to intern in Mexico. After 6 months there, I was quite fluent in Spanish. But when I wanted to think of a Romanian word, all that popped up was Spanish. Pretty wild how the brain works. (Romanian, Spanish, French, Italian, … are all Latin influenced languages, btw.)

numba888 2y ago
Don't worry, you will get speaking skills with practice quickly. I think you can talk to OpenAI app in Romanian. Not sure. After not speaking for 3/4 of my life I understand only about one half of audio news and bit more of text.
wjholden 2y ago
I learned a little Spanish growing up in the USA. As I learned French as an adult, when I didn't know a French word, the Spanish word would often come to me. Now I'm learning German, and often the French word comes to me when I don't know a German word. However, I've also struggled to speak French again because the German often comes to my head first. It has been amusing to observe that one doesn't learn a third language as a strict subset of the second. For example, I know a lot more French than German, but I know the German "Tierarzt" (veterinarian) but not the French equivalent.