Thoughts On Forgetting A Language
Takeaway Points:
When you learn a language, much like any skill, regular practice is required to keep that skill from decaying.
I learned a significant amount of French while living in France, but have lost almost all of in ten years of non-use since.
I discuss the strategies I’m using to both learn and practice language now, and how to ensure that you don’t waste your time when you’re learning a new language.
When I went to college, my college placed a heavy emphasis on studying abroad. It was heavily expected that third year students would participate in some sort of study abroad package. These packages were effectively covered by your normal tuition, with most of the necessary paperwork and precautions being handled by an office in the school which specialized in doing so. Since something like ¾ of all students did this, those few who remained behind would be left without their normal friends. There was enough slack in the general credits required to graduate that you could spend this study abroad experience earning credits unrelated to your major, and still not have a problem graduating.
I was an English literature and philosophy double major. At the time, I had zero desire to learn another language, which meant that my options for study abroad were a bit limited. The English speaking study abroad locations were limited, with one in London being geared towards economics majors, and one in Scotland being geared towards literature majors. Unfortunately, the Scotland program was also limited in slots, and these slots were strongly contested. I didn’t make it.
Faced with the choice between social isolation (hah) or figuring out an alternate study abroad program, I ultimately chose the path of least resistance. In high school, I had learned some French, but it hadn’t particularly stuck. Luckily, one of the French study abroad programs didn’t require much, and was itself geared towards teaching you French more than anything, so all I had to do was test out of the French 101 class with what I already knew, take a second class, and then apply. I did, and I ended up spending about a half a year in Strasbourg. I spent most of the time learning French, running around the local park, playing World of Warcraft on my laptop, and drinking 3 euro bottles of wine with my fellow students in the program. Ultimately, it was a very stressful and challenging period, but I also really learned a lot, and got to experience living abroad for the first time. I had a lot of fun experiencing a new culture.
Fast forward a bit, and I was back in the states. But I didn’t really have any interest in further pursuing my French studies. I had never found it particularly easy to learn the language - even in France, I had often stumbled over simple interactions with native speakers. It had gotten easier over time as I had been forced to use the language with native speakers and in my daily classes, but it was slow going.
I didn’t have any long term framework in place for continuing to study the language - so as a result, my skill began to stagnate and decay.
At one point, I made an effort to practice my French by reading some French novels. I cracked open a book, only to realize that I understood maybe 50% of what I was reading. In order to continue reading, I had to constantly bounce back and forth between the book and an open browser tab with google translate, typing in words to translate their meaning. This process took forever, and often I’d forget translations shortly after I read them.
As the old sayings go, you always have to “use it or lose it”, and, “practice makes perfect”.
But I had no clue how to practice. It can be incredibly difficult to practice a language without a native speaker, and I didn’t have the money or the time to pay for something like skype tutoring lessons. I could try to learn from some French language television programs or books, but this was slow, tedious, laborious work which I could never get into no matter how hard I tried.
Some kinds of practice are also simply better than others. I didn’t know the right way to go about practicing, so I was mostly wasting time.
I ended up resorting to apps. This was right when smartphones were starting to come out, and the portability and ever-present nature of the smartphone made it a perfect platform for new methods for language learning.
At the time, I heard of an app called Memrise, which essentially included multimedia flashcards for various languages - unfortunately, most of the content was user generated, meaning that there were huge differences in quality and that it was sometimes hard to use effectively.
Shortly after that, Duolingo came out and took the world by storm, so I gave it a spin there as well. For a while, I practiced a bit of French daily while I got in my cardio, or whenever I had some downtime. I found that this was a way better solution than Memrise. However, this wasn’t really enough either, and there are serious limitations to Duolingo as a primary language learning tool anyway.
Most importantly, however, I wasn’t particularly dedicated. I had never been particularly enamored of the language, or of the general language learning process, in the first place. I had a feeling that I should practice, but I had so many other things going on in my life at the time, that I didn’t focus on it much at all. I was busy figuring out a career, taking care of rent, and just generally trying to sort out my future - what point was practicing a language I was never going to use?
This was a smart choice at the time, but a mistake in the long run. At this point, it’s been almost a decade since I lived in France. I’ve had no serious practice of the language, other than those occasional bits where it’s popped up in my everyday life, or the couple of times that I’ve been back to France since. Now that we live in the UK, it’s a lot easier to visit Paris, after all.
The other day, my wife asked me to translate a simple question into French (she was trying to get the friend code of a French woman who plays Animal Crossing, and she wanted to take advantage of that woman’s turnip prices, if this means anything to you!) and I totally failed. I literally, could not, for the life of me, remember the word “votre” - “your”.
It doesn’t help that I started learning Danish in 2016, when my wife and I moved to Denmark to follow one of her career opportunities. Ultimately the job didn’t last, but I started taking the language lessons (in Denmark, language lessons are free for immigrants, with some conditions) while we were there and really fell in love with the Danish language, and with language learning, in a way that I hadn’t when I lived in France.
At first, I often struggled with Danish in part because I had learned another language first. I would start speaking in Danish, and my brain would cross some wires and move into fragments of French halfway through - after all, it was all foreign language, so it’s not like my brain was good at keeping it all apart. Over time, I learned to bury those French impulses - both for the good of my Danish learning and the further loss of my French.
I would say that ultimately I have learned better tools for practicing and retaining a language than the last time around. When I left Denmark, I knew that I still wanted to continue learning the language, so I made more effort to research the best ways to practice.
I regularly still listen to a Danish podcast that I like. I watch Danish shows more regularly - and it’s now way easier to watch foreign language shows than it was back in 2010, I think. I watch the Danish news - it’s on YouTube, with subtitles. I have Danish friends that I interact with on social media, and I regularly try to read some of the Danish news sites.
I stumbled across a language learning tool called Lingq, which I’ve found endlessly more useful than Duolingo or Memrise ever were.
Lingq is effectively a tool which enables you to easily create your own self-made language database based on the words you’ve seen. It effortlessly imports text from websites and ebooks, then it highlights the words in that book. Blue words are words you haven’t seen before. Tap or click on the word to get an immediate, crowd-sourced translation, or if there’s not a good one available, you can Google translate it very quickly. Unlike going back and forth with a physical book, Lingq makes the process much more seamless, without breaking your sense of pace.
Once you’ve seen a word, it turns yellow to signify that this is a word you’ve seen before. You can further tell the system if you know the word better (ranging from 1 - new word, to 5 - well known), and the yellow highlight fades away as you get more familiar with the word. Outside of your text, you can review the words you know with a simple, built-in flashcard system.
I personally discovered that I prefer the flashcard system Anki, which has been the gold standard flashcard system for a long time - luckily, Lingq makes it easy to export your database of words into Anki flashcards quite quickly, so I can easily use these flashcards as an extension of my normal reading practice.
One of the biggest problems with knowledge is that any kind of skill, if not practiced, eventually decays over time. Languages aren’t exempt from this - you don’t simply learn a language, but you also have to maintain it, or you’ll slowly lose it. The easiest way to learn a new language, is ultimately to move to another country, where you’ll be strongly encouraged to learn and use the native language. It’s a lot harder when you don’t have easy access to native speakers, and are instead forced to find other ways to practice.
I’ve found that listening to audio (or watching video) is the best way to practice listening comprehension - luckily no matter your language, it’s likely you can find a lot of it on YouTube now. For grammar, you may want to buy a textbook and review the harder parts. For pronunciation, you need to practice speaking - ideally, with a native speaker, but you don’t necessarily have to, if you just focus on pronouncing words regularly. For vocabulary, however, flashcards are king.
Anki has really been a blessing in this regard. As you get more practiced with any skill, you have to practice more intensely to gain further progress, but it gets easier and easier to practice and maintain the things you’ve already mastered. Thus, while you may need to review a word frequently in the beginning, once it’s “stuck” in your brain, you may only need to review it every week, every couple of weeks, or once a month, in order to keep it there.
The classic method for memory training is the spaced repetition system, or SRS, of which Anki (and Lingq’s built in flashcard review system) is a good example. Anki automatically remembers how long it’s been since you last reviewed a card (as well as how well you said you remembered it, or if you’d forgotten it) and automatically does the tedious work of scheduling out when you need to review that card next. Each day, you receive a stack of flashcards perfectly tailored to refresh the words you know, exactly when you need to review them, to ensure that your memory remains strong.
I’ve also found that the Anki app for the phone is massively helpful. It’s a very simple app that syncs with the desktop version, so you can download it and share your progress across all your devices. When I’m going out for a walk to the store or getting some movement in, I can review words while I’m walking to make the best use of my time. This also makes it easy to put my time to productive use when I’m bored, such as commuting, waiting in a queue, and so on.
I forgot the French language, but it will be easier to relearn a second time because my brain has already made a lot of those connections. Much in the way that you never quite forget how to ride a bike, your body remembers, subconsciously, a lot more than you think. It’s the same with learning a new skill, or taking up an exercise program.
This time around, I will be better. I will use better tools to remember and practice my vocabulary, listening comprehension, and grammar, all thanks to the fact that I learned a third language, and got better at language learning, in the process. Better, I now live closer to France, making it easier for me to visit native speakers when possible.
I know this time around, not to let my Danish drop off in the process - I can continue to practice Danish flashcards to keep the language fresh, while at the same time shifting focus to building my proficiency in French. It’s not a good idea to learn multiple languages simultaneously, so Danish will simply go on the backburner (“maintenance mode”) while I put more of my effort into learning French.
I’m not quite at the point where I’m ready to switch back to French. I have a series of books in Danish that I want to finish before I move on, and I think that will serve as a good exit point for the time being. But, I am looking forward to relearning the language that I forgot, and seeing how it works a second time around.
If you’re looking to learn your own language, I highly recommend Duolingo as a solid starting place. However, while Lingq is a bit pricey, it’s by far the best tool I’ve ever used, and I wouldn’t be anywhere near as far as I am without it. Likewise, making your own deck of Anki flashcards is one of the best review tools available to you for practicing vocabulary. I’d absolutely recommend checking these tools out!
About Adam Fisher
Adam is an experienced fitness coach and blogger who's been blogging for 5+ years, coaching for 6+ years, and lifting for 12+ years. He's written for numerous major health publications, including Personal Trainer Development Center, T-Nation, Bodybuilding.com, Fitocracy, and Juggernaut Training Systems.
During that time he has coached hundreds of individuals of all levels of fitness, including competitive powerlifters and older exercisers regaining the strength to walk up a flight of stairs. His own training revolves around powerlifting and bodybuilding.
Adam writes about fitness, health, science, philosophy, personal finance, self-improvement, productivity, the good life, and everything else that interests him. When he's not writing or lifting, he's usually hanging out with his cat or feeding his video game addiction.
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