I think it is a common thing that when one learns a foreign language, he eventually loses his proficiency in his own language or in any language he learned earlier.
This is what I am experiencing right now.
Basically, I can speak three Philippine dialects, and two languages (Filipino and English). I also learned a little bit of Chinese.
In my pursuit to learn German, I think the biggest consequence is that I am losing what little English skills I have. I wouldn’t mind losing my skills in those Philippine dialects because I honestly don’t find any significant or life changing use of them.
But with English, it is different.
Like many citizens of the Philippines, I learned English as a second language and for me it is a continuous learning process. I say that it is a continuous learning process because I’ve never felt that I’ve achieved the English proficiency of a native speaker. And though I am not aiming to adopt an English native speaker’s twang and accent, I want to be able to use English (written and spoken) with the same ease as that of a native speaker.
And so there goes my problem. Right now, I don’t use English too often and although I try to hold on to it by reading and rereading books and blogs that are written in English, I still feel like my English is degrading. Not only that but much to my dismay, I also somehow successfully able to adopt the kind of English they speak here. That means that when I am speaking in English, I now have those awkward rising and falling tones that are unevenly spread all throughout my sentences. Normally, these tones sound wonderfully melodious when used in an Austrian dialect but these tones definitely sound absurd when used in English.
The only person I talk to in English right now is my husband. Slowly, we are trying to speak to each other in German (this is in our effort to improve my German skills). Hopefully we don’t get use to speaking in German to each other that much so there’s still room for English because I sure don’t like to lose my skills in English. I know it will always come in handy especially since we really like to raise our future kid/s as English/German bilingual.
