My (insert native language) is TERRIBLE!

[lucybelle]

Is this happening to any of you who live in a country where they don't speak your native language?

My English is getting awful. I think the reason is I teach in English so I hear the same mistakes from my students over and over again. The first time I hear them I think it sounds completely wrong. Then it starts to sound normal. Then I start using it! I'm also forgetting how to spell a lot of words in English.

The main things that have started invading my English:

Charging a video (instead of loading one)
Can you borrow me a pencil (instead of can I borrow a pencil)
Do you want your note (instead of do you want your grade)
Why I got married with you (instead of why I married you, this is obviously from my SO not the kids!)

My SO keeps asking why I don't correct his English and it's because I don't even notice it's wrong anymore.

I hope it starts to come back to me when we go back to the USA!!!

[Hollandia]

I don't live there yet but My Dutch is horrible. They mostly all speak English over there but yes some things are just a bit off. His parents lived in the USA for a few years and when they send me emails I can really see that they still speak it a bit differently. This just tells me learning new languages really can be hard to do. I don't think I would ever have a problem forgetting my English when I move there because my SO speaks and writes it better than most Americans sometimes. LOL. I am very excited at bringing a baby up with a native English speaker and a native Dutch speaker.

[Tooki]

As an Australian from a larger bogan centre in New South Wales, I acknowledge that I already abuse the English language.

On a serious note, I feel like my GF's 'quality' of English has diluted somewhat since she met me. She is slowly starting to speak in the 'Australian' style of English, compared to her refined European ESL English standard.

If I ever moved to Estonia, my general standard of English would improve.

[weetzie]

I've been working on Portuguese, German, and Dutch recently, but for the life of me I just can't remember certain words in English. Or I'll say it in the word order of another language.

[Schlafmütze]

Two of my three flatmates were italians. Their spanish wasn't perfect, in fact they were learning. This was a little bit uncomfortable, yet funny situation because the 3rd flatmate was mexican and they (the italians) had classmates/co-workers that were spanish/catalans/peruvians. There were times in which with their many questions, they made me doubt my own language. Or actually, sometimes I was having a hard time trying to find a word they could use, so that their mexicans, spanish, peruvians friends could understand what they were talking about. It would take me longer than expected to find a word or a way to say something in spanish, so they were saying: "But isn't spanish your native language?" There were some embarrassing situations because of that.

Their repetitive mistakes never sounded normal to my ears. Their mistakes were normally so hilarious I couldn't stop laughing (not in an offensive way though. I love to laugh!) plus their italian accent... I just had to laugh and then after the laugh, I was telling them what the mistake was

[milaya]

When I'm in Japan or my SO is in Denmark for long periods I seem to start making weird mistakes in Danish. My friends even tend to laugh when they hear me make these mistakes. When I'm in Japan I even tend to forget a lot of words and even when I'm just thinking or talking to myself it all turns into Japanese. I fear how my Danish turns out when I'll live in Japan permanently from next year.

I think it's especially hard for a person with a less common native language when moving abroad, since I don't have many chances of getting materials in my language in the new country and it's hard to keep updated. I'll probably only be able to use it when I skype with friends and family.
I've started a DVD collection of my favorite Danish movies and especially my favorite Danish stand-up comedy (which takes up the biggest part of the collection) which I'm going to bring with me to Japan together with books in Danish in hopes that I won't forget my native language XD

Of course my spoken English is deteriorating and getting worse both when I'm in Denmark or in Japan, since I don't use spoken English in either countries.

[Verojoon]

My French (native language) is pretty bad at times and I generally avoid having to use it... which in my neighborhood is pretty much impossible... I also notice myself making the same grammar mistakes than my SO at times... especially things like dropping the article before a word... I think it is laziness combined with it not sounding so bad since I'm so used to hearing it from him. He asked me that I start correcting his grammar and I'm not sure if I can because I hardly even notice his mistakes anymore...

[Jess!]

My SO speakings my native language quite well. That's how we communicate, and everyone around says I do have an accent now (in my own language!) and I speak in a weird entonation and I do say some wrong things... some people pick this stuff quite easily and I am one of them. My SO speaks perfect for a foreigner, but when I start to speak as we speak, I do some mistakes and everyone notices. Sometimes is awkward, but my father says is quite cute!

This is also due to the fact that I teach my own language to foreign people. We tandem and I do have to speak very slowly and not make any ''liasion'' between words, which is one of the basics of my native language (otherwise they don't understand me) and I end up talking like that to everyone around. Believe me, it's quite dorky and sounds weird, but I can't help it.

[arrah5]

Here's one for you, my SO and I live in the same country, even the same state, but because our cultures are so different, talking with him was so confusing, at first. I know we are speaking the same language, but sometimes the way certain words and phrases are used, I don't understand what he is talking about. He does the same thing to me, I'll say something, and he doesn't understand what I mean, so I will have to find a different way to explain what I'm talking about. I used to get so frustrated with him, thinking he had terrible grammar and language skills.

[elina]

Because we speak mostly English at home and basically always after a trip to England, I'm finding it harder and harder to speak Finnish. I can, of course, but I come up with really random words (that aren't even words/don't make sense to anyone else), I can't find the right endings for words (we've got 15 different cases so it's kinda hard as it is.. poor Sam..) and I stutter.. a lot. I can only imagine what would happen to my Finnish if we moved to England

[Dziubka]

We speak (almost only) Polish at home, all my classes are in Polish and while my work is German-related it's mostly writing and I don't normally actually speak German there. Only very occasionally.

I have to concentrate SO HARD when I skype/talk on the phone with my mum or grandparents. A lot of the time I can't remember the words or I'll randomly drop in little Polish words, mostly particles like "like" "you know" "well" etc. but it must sound really stupid for someone who doesn't know Polish. It's especially bad because I know how judgemental my mum was/is about her sister who moved to AUS and speaks German with an Australien accent now and sometimes can't find the German words. My mum's always super annoyed by it and thinks her sister's doing to be seem more exotic or whatever. I guess Polish doesn't exactly qualify as exotic or cool, though, so maybe I'm fine?!
The worst thing is, that a lot of the time I don't even notice. With those small words I don't even think about them, I use the one that comes to mind first and sometimes it just happens to be from the wrong language. It doesn't usually happen the other way round, probably because I focus more when I speak Polish.

[chizatlauren]

My native language is in Filipino, but I myself is getting bad at it. Like, really bad.

My SO keeps on asking me things like, how do you say I miss you in Filipino? I will give him a blank stare and just say, "It's still I miss you." Cause I can't even remember what I miss you means in my native language anymore!

I grew up studying English, graduating in college with a degree in Communications (where my first language in the classroom is English) and I live in a country where pretty much everyone can understand and speak English. I speak Filipino at home, but ever since I met my SO, my family noticed the change in my accent, it's turning American as my mother said. And I have forgotten most of the Filipino things I knew before.

Now I'm forcing my SO to study my native language too, just to be fair He's taking away my Filipino skills

[dukes2011]

When I came home after studying abroad my English was pretty horrible and that was only after 4.5 months of being in Spain. I can't imagine what it must be like if you're in another country on a long term basis! My brother found it hilarious since I'm always correcting his grammar, so for once he was correcting mine. I would also insert Spanish words randomly and I had no idea I was doing it. I would figure out when my listener got confused or just straight out asked why I was doing that.

[Jess!]

When I came home after studying abroad my English was pretty horrible and that was only after 4.5 months of being in Spain. I can't imagine what it must be like if you're in another country on a long term basis! My brother found it hilarious since I'm always correcting his grammar, so for once he was correcting mine. I would also insert Spanish words randomly and I had no idea I was doing it. I would figure out when my listener got confused or just straight out asked why I was doing that.

That happened to me when I did a semester abroad! My english got worse because I spoke mosty with spanish, italian, czech, french people. I ended up being lazy when speaking/writing in english (my 2nd language) because I had to use easier vocabulary. This was one year ago and I still feel the effect. Those friends thought I was helping then with english, and I did, but then my english got really bad... !

[snow]

I grew up speaking polish and german (and learning english since I was 11).
I feel like my polish is still at the same level as it was as I still speak it a good amount at home, but my german is getting worse and worse.. not so much that it's noticable but I just use some english words if I don't know the german words anymore... or I say stuff like "I'm good" but in german.. exactly like that which makes my siblings laugh at me :P