My mom, the other day, in a conversation with me.
Interestingly enough, my mom kind of has a point here. For quite some time now, I’ve noticed a slow deterioration of my English skills. This doesn’t really come as a surprise, since I don’t practice my English nearly as much as I do back home, but even still, it’s shocking to be in mid-sentence and realize that my language patterns, intonations, pronounciation, and grammar have changed.
There have been numerous times when I’ve been speaking with someone, and I have to pause to recollect my thoughts or to search for a word that has somehow managed to escape me. Once, I had a friend visiting Paris and I was talking to her, and it took me probably ten solid seconds of thinking to find the word that I was looking for. Other times, I find myself saying things in English that I would never say in English. This could be obvious things like, “This trumps me,” or something smaller such as “I’m going at the bank.” French speakers, I’ve noticed, constantly say one particular phrase: en fait. This means “in fact,” which no one ever says in English, though even still, I find myself now saying it every once and a while. Furthermore, I’ll occasionally make up English words, such as “innerved,” rather than “unnerved.” And yet even further, no one ever says “unnerved” in the first place. Perhaps the most striking part is that I sometimes misconjugate verbs, saying things like “he are” and “they tooks.” It’s only after a beat that I realize my mistake, and often I have to actually ask the person to whom I’m talking to see if that’s actually what I said or if I’m making it up.
Out of every week, there are probably two days where I don’t actually speak any English. Yes, it may be true that I still type and read in English, but in terms of actual talking, it’s not completely rare for me to have zero real-life encounters in my native tongue. You probably wouldn’t think that this would have such an impact, but, well, you’d be wrong. I think it’s because writing and reading are fairly do-it-at-your-own-pace sorts of things, whereas speaking requires a more rapid thought process. As such, you’re bound to make more mistakes in the first place because you have less time to think.
Of course, all of this doesn’t really come as a surprise. It’s logic to think that, if you have a skill that goes unused for a while, well, you’re going to lose a bit of it. And people have told me that they’ve had similar experiences happen to them. Yet, admittedly, it’s really bizarre to experience it myself - especially since grammar and spelling are things with which I’m very, very tedious.
Just promise not to make fun of me when I come back and sound really awkward.
