So I once spoke this language...

Well I'm off to college this year, and while I was deciding what classes to take it occurred to me that I might go for German. I was born in Germany and lived there until I was about 6. According to my memory and my family, I was quite the chatter box. If I were to learn this language again, would it be easier for me than for anyone else?

Sure ... Why do you want to learn German? You should learn Chinese or something similar ^^

When you said "So I once spoke this language..." I thought you were talking about English. I speak English, but none of the younger generation do.

Seems like it should be easier now. You probably retain more vocabulary than you think.

Geoff

I was in a similar situation with Japanese (spoke it at home until I went to nursery school) but only the "bad" words remained. Had to start over when I went to grad school. Given that you've continued until six, you may have retained a lot more than me.

German may come easier, but Spanish may be more useful. Just a thought. I don't really know when you'd use the German. I know some actual German immigrants, and they only speak it to each other, while Spanish is useful pretty much everywhere due the large number of Hispanic immigrants around the country.

(Do not take that as a cue to discuss immigration legislation or your feelings on the prevalence of the Spanish language in the USA in any way, as it is not suitable for this thread or the Cafe in general. Just stating a fact.)

Hey, Mags, unrelated to your language question, but just wanted to say congratulations on going to college. Best luck!

Mags said:

If I were to learn this language again, would it be easier for me than for anyone else?

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Easier for you than for me, danke schoen. And best wishes on your schooling.

Mags said:

Well I'm off to college this year, and while I was deciding what classes to take it occurred to me that I might go for German. I was born in Germany and lived there until I was about 6. According to my memory and my family, I was quite the chatter box. If I were to learn this language again, would it be easier for me than for anyone else?

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I spoke Japanese all the time until I was 7, but when I moved to the states I stopped using it for 5 years and eventually couldn't speak a word of it. Went back to visit my relatives and over the course of a summer I was speaking it all over again. It was like I never missed a beat. Looking back it's amazing to see how quickly I reacquired my language skills in such a short period of time.

You will definitely have a much easier time remembering it.

Mags said:

Well I'm off to college this year, and while I was deciding what classes to take it occurred to me that I might go for German. I was born in Germany and lived there until I was about 6. According to my memory and my family, I was quite the chatter box. If I were to learn this language again, would it be easier for me than for anyone else?

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I've read that children use a different part of the brain to learn new languages than adults use. Yours is an interesting situation. I'm interested to hear how it goes.

Why don't give it a try? If it is your actual mother tongue it would be pretty easy to learn. And if you still have ancestors in Germany even better than you don't have to talk to them in English anymore .

rayman

Considering that you were immersed in a German environment through your infancy, it should be relatively easy to get it back. You will essentially be pre-programmed to understand the structure of the language and to produce and understand (most if not all) the sounds that compose it.

JCD said:

I've read that children use a different part of the brain to learn new languages than adults use. Yours is an interesting situation. I'm interested to hear how it goes.

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Yup, that's very true. For children a language becomes sort of embedded or programmed into them; the analogy I've heard used is that its like having an array of switches that get set as a child develops, corresponding to the stimulus they receive. For adults, these switches have already been set (and essentially locked in place) so it becomes a very academic process to learn a new language. There is a great contrast between this and the "organic" learning process of a child, but both children and adults can usually learn a language just as well... though their strengths may lie in different areas.

I wish I remembered more about the differences, but it's been too long since my 100-level Linguistics course!

Thanks for the responses guys. As to why I want to learn it, I just thought that it would be nice to reactivate that part of my brain. I know that German may not be as useful as other languages, but its still something I wanna do.

Definitely worth picking it up again, IMO. You'll probably find it comes back to you quite quickly - maybe in just a few days, and then it'll just be a matter of adding to the vocabulary.

I used to speak Arabic with complete fluency ~30 years ago, but hadn't used it at all since then. When I needed it again recently, it all came back in a rush within 2 days!