If it’s really something you care about, I’d suggest:
- switch your computer, phone, etc to your native language
- look up famous authors, books written in your native language and read them
- torrent media in your native language (see fmhy for example) (bonus non-english torrents could use more help seeding)
- talk/share with your parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc more
- take more vacation in your parent’s previous country
Personally, this is something I struggle with. I’m brown, don’t have an English sounding name (nor do I want one), and I was born in the USA, yet I’ve never felt welcomed here and have always felt like a guest in my own country. Especially right now with all the ICE shit, it’s very clear that even though I was born in the USA, I will never be considered Unitedstatian.
My family, native language, and culture provide some relief.
I feel you! Great recommendations, thanks
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Wait until your inner monologue is in English
Multi-lingual inner monologue is awesome though.
So much of how we think is dictated by the language we speak. Many things can only be said in some but not other languages.
One cool thing with todays “AI” is it’s only statistics, so I can ask it C’est combien for a new brödrost, and it works perfectly well.
Super handy when you’re typing and you forget a word in the language you’re using.
I used to code switch in my inner monologue. Now it’s mostly English. I pretty much only speak my native language with my parents.
The other day I ran into some distant relatives at a new years celebration and one of them remarked that my language was rusty and pronunciation is weird…idk about pronunciation. I don’t agree there. But my active vocab in native language is pretty diminished.
Language is like a muscle. If you don’t use it, it fades faster than you think.
Yeah fr.
I just don’t see any need to improve my native language. I don’t need it irl, and I find it pretty boring. Unlike other foreign languages I might learn for fun.
How do you feel about this? My native language is English so there’s no real prospect of this happening to me, but I always thought the idea of ones maybe language getting rusty was terribly sad.
Why do you think it’s sad?
Language is a major part of a person’s identity, usually - it has ties to their ethnicity and culture and because it’s fundamental to expressing yourself it’s fundamental to being yourself. Few people can express themselves as well in a language they didn’t speak in their earliest years, too, though that’s a large exception, and of course it’s not all of the remainder.
So I see it as sad in the same way that anything that disconnects someone from their roots is sad - if you grow up eating certain foods and later don’t have access to them, for example, but more fundamental.
I was always disconnected with my country’s culture. Partly because I grew up somewhere else (with a similar culture) but mostly because I didn’t leave the house much and spent a lot of time on the English-speaking internet.
But I don’t really see it as a bad thing. I try not to tie my identity to where I was born or what piece of paper I was given. I don’t like nationalism. I am a human. That’s what matters most. Humans are the same everywhere. Of course it’s natural for humans to be tribal but I think we should overcome that.
Really my culture is a mix of cultures. I still cook my country’s meals. I kept a lot of habits I’m used to. The language is still there, it’s just weaker. If I ever feel like it I may revive it someday. But to me that’s more boring compared to learning a new and exciting foreign language I’ve had no contact with.
The negative aspect of nationalism and tribalism, as I see it, is when it’s turned negatively towards others, rather than positively towards oneself. Seeing “I’m from X so I’m better than you” is bad, but saying “I’m from X so I enjoy Y” is just culture. Keeping a connection with your culture can give you a valuable comfort - senses of belonging and community that are otherwise hard to replicate.
It does sound like you’re the kind of person who wouldn’t feel what I’m describing though. I don’t mean that negatively either, but just to say that I’m trying to explain what I mean not to say that you ought to feel bad.
I had a dream of my locally regeional folklore creatures once, all speaking English. Realizing that they’re out of character made me so annoyed that I actually woke up.
First time?
I learned enough japanese that I didn’t translate to english in my head apart from new words just to play games not likely to be translated or localized but for some reason I remember them in english like I played them in english. Language is just weird and brain is just weird. Then my japanese friends went home before covid lockdowns and now I can barely follow a conversation.
I’ve said this before but one of the worst days of my life is the day I realized I dream in English now :(
My head says stuff in other languages all the time because a word’s easier or funner to say.
Wait till you start making words up in your native language that you thought were of english origins but were in fact not and people start looking at you funny. :(
Actually started watching movies in my native dub to relearn it. Wish i would be kidding…
wait until your internal monologue in your native language suddenly gets interrupted by english
I’ve been having my inner monologue in English for since I was a teenager but I think deep down my mother tongue language is the language of my subconscious
I heard a story about someone who through a combination of moving country at a particular developmental point and not taking enough steps to learn, ended up not having native-level language skills in either their native language or the language where they ended up.
The prospect kind of terrified me
Lack of exposure would be my guess. People can pick up languages with adult brains too. English is my third language, but I use it every day to a degree that I find it hard not to think in english. Learned german for ten years, but as soon as I stopped using it english overtook it. Now I struggle to string a proper sentence together.
Pretty normal. Some words are used much more often in English and others don’t even exist in my language.
