IIN to forget native language

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  • I don't know about all of that, but when my mom had her hysterectomy probably over thirty years ago I remember visiting her in her hospital room with my father, and sister, and my mom could only speak in English. My mom is originally from Colombia, and her native language is Spanish, she's bilingual, and fluent in English. I don't know why my mom could only speak English when she first came out of surgery, but she's been in the United States for over 53 years, and the language that she speaks the most since my sister I have come along is probably English. My sister, and I can probably kinda understand some Spanish, but really we only speak English.

    I did study German in high school, and a little bit in college, but don't get a lot of opportunities to practice it. I feel on some level that it might be safer to travel to Colombia these days than it might be to go to Germany, or England. Maybe I'm wrong, but I dunno.

    Anyway, is it just me, or are cat farts potent, yet fleeting, and ephemeral?

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    • I think what happened with your mother wasn't that unusual. I've heard of people forgetting their native tongue and only being able to use the most recently learned language when under the influence of drugs and after brain injury.

      I read a few months ago about an English-speaking woman who suffered a stroke and woke up only able to speak French, which was very weird, since her last exposure to the language was about thirty years before in the UK equivalent of US high school. My recollection of the details is hazy, but I think it took her months to get back to speaking English fluently.

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      • During the last weeks of a summer long business assignment in Madrid, Spain, I started to forget how English sounded. Reading was no problem. I could speak English fine, but not very clearly. Fortunately, the problem was easy to fix by watching BBC news from London on television every night. The international edition news anchor spoke in a neutral way that was equally clear for both North American, and European listeners.

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      • Thanks! 🙂👍🏻

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    • Ya got me in the first half not gonna lie

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