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Julia_the_Great
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02 Aug 2010, 11:50 am

I'm a fluent native Russian speaker, but I'm forgetting it because I don't practice that much. I don't think I have much of an accent, but when I listen to native speakers, they often seem like they do have foreign accents. Is this a sign that I'm developing an American accent when I speak Russian?


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ShenLong
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02 Aug 2010, 11:59 am

I understand. Spanish was my first language and I forgot it when i began learning English(my Mother is Puerto rican and my Father is Canadian American. My mom wanted for me to be billingual, and for a time I was, but I gradually gave up and spoke english exsclusively). I picked it up again, but stopped practicing for a year and forgot some again.



AngelKnight
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17 Jun 2011, 3:18 pm

Julia_the_Great wrote:
I'm a fluent native Russian speaker, but I'm forgetting it because I don't practice that much. I don't think I have much of an accent, but when I listen to native speakers, they often seem like they do have foreign accents. Is this a sign that I'm developing an American accent when I speak Russian?


Perhaps. You may wish to get the opinions of said native speakers and see what they think.

Languages are like most other skills: use them or lose them.



Last edited by AngelKnight on 18 Jun 2011, 12:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

Asterisp
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17 Jun 2011, 3:34 pm

The accents in other native speakers may have to do where they live. In The Netherlands alone the number of accents is huge and I can hear from which part of the country people come from.

Other aspect could be the development of language. Language changes through time, when you are abroad you do not develop it, so your language could be a bit out of date.

Practice is important indeed. When I was abroad I did not speak Dutch for 4,5 months and when I needed to speak it, I was struggling for words already. Guess more years will be bad for the language skill.



LonelyJar
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17 Aug 2014, 2:10 am

I took Spanish in high school, but since I didn't practice it after graduating, I'm a bit rusty.



Kiprobalhato
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18 Aug 2014, 12:21 pm

i've forgotten like 75% of the Italian i practiced last summer. :P


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Spiderpig
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22 Aug 2014, 6:58 pm

The surest way not to forget a language is to stay monolingual! Well, even then, if you spend too much time isolated, perhaps you?ll lose all ability to communicate verbally.


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Kiprobalhato
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09 Sep 2014, 11:04 pm

if i was isolated for too long i'd go crazy and talk to myself the entire time, so perhaps not? :lol:

might even make up some new words.


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