Getting back into it: how to start re-learning a language
Not much leaves your head faster than an unused language! I was in French Immersion in school from when I was 5 until 17, but as soon as I went off to University, I left my french behind me (even though I went to a University that offered the option to do any program in French AND I lived within walking distance of the province of Quebec. Ugh! I’m still kicking myself today for not taking advantage of those opportunities to continue with French!) Now I struggle to keep up even the most basic conversations in French.
There is good news for those of us who have once learned a language but took a long break; the language is still in there somewhere! I believe that a language never really leaves your head completely, it is just “sleeping” and needs to be kicked a little bit to wake up! 
If you have spent anytime in your life learning a language and want to restart it, it will not be like starting a new language from scratch. Things will start to come back to you. So how do you start re-learning a language? Well first, see how much you remember!
- Open up a website in the target language. How much can you understand? If you can barely understand anything, then you might have to go back to basics and learn like a beginner. Look for beginner’s resources and courses online. You may be learning like a beginner but you will most likely progress much faster than when you first learned the language. If you can get the gist of things, then start making flash cards of the words you don’t know and keep on getting as much imput of the language as you can. Read, watch movies and TV shows (with subtitles in the language you are learning if possible) and review your flash cards. If you’re stuggling with remembering the grammar, then pick up a good grammar book!
The key is to stuff your brain with as much input from the language as possible. Your brain will refire-up old connections and your old language skills will start to wake up from their long nap!
Have any of you once learned a language and then “forgotten” it? Are you planning on re-learning it? If so, then leave a comment about your experiences with “forgetting” and re-learning languages!
Hi Jess,
>> I believe that a language never really leaves your head completely, it is just “sleeping” and needs to be kicked a little bit to wake up!
I think you are right here. I moved to Paris 5 months ago. I hadn’t really spoken French for over ten years but it was still there.
Anyway, I know this is a bit different but I would like to know what you think about this:
I have two friends (twins) who were brought up in France (english parents) until the age of six when they moved to England. At this point, they spoke fluent French and good English. They had the micky taken out them at school in England for accidentaly saying the odd word in French. Because of this, they then refused to say another word in French and in a year they had totally forgotten it. Now they are in their late thirties and know just a few words like bonjour etc. They now of course wish they still knew French.
So do you think that knowledge is still in their heads or has it gone?
Hmm. Well I am unfortunately not an expert on language acquisition (yet!) I would think that the French is still there. When you learn a language to fluency (especially at such a young age) it just seems impossible to me that it would leave your brain permanently. The unfortunate thing in their case is that they might have some sort of subconscious “bad” association with French because of them being bullied at school (that is what “taking the mickey out of someone” means, right? I had to look it up!) for speaking French that might make it harder for them to bring it back, but I think that their French is still in their heads, but might be “buried” a bit deeper because of the bad association and because it has been over thirty years since they have spoken it.
Hi Jess,
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Thanks for your thoughts (I know this is really a bit out of the normal scope of your blog
I also think that the bullying may have somehow locked this knowledge away in their heads. One of them actually went to a hypnotist 3 times a couple of years ago to try to bring this knowledge back. He was regressed back to being a child at school in France. He said he felt like he was really there and he could suddenly remember teachers names etc that he had forgotten. Then the hypnotist said (in english) ‘now speak to me in French’ and he couldn’t do it. So the French didn’t come back but I think you would need a French speaking hypnotist to pretend to be his teacher or something in order to prompt him properly.
I’m thinking it would be something more along the lines of “muscle memory”.
As in, how if you once had really huge strong biceps and had to work a year to get them, but then got lazy and stopped training and lost your muscle mass after awhile, but then one day started training again, it would come back a lot faster than the first time you built up your muscles because of “muscle memory”. Unfortunately I don’t think that after all these years he has some hidden reserve of ready-to-use perfect French fluency somewhere in his brain, I think he will have to re-learn it but that it would most likely start coming back to him in bits and pieces.
Remember though, I am definitely not any sort of expert on this topic and he could very well be able to bring it all back with hypnosis!
Hi Jessica,
Thanks for adding my translation blog fidusinterpres.com to your blogroll! You have a very cool blog yourself! In fact, it’s so cool and worth linking that I created a category in my own blogroll to include “language blogs” and not only “translation blogs”. I would definitely recommend your blog to my readers. By the way, I have the exact same bookshelf you do
Hmmmm… I learnt some Japanese when I was at High School -enough to follow a general conversation, but when I started University, I left it. Now I can remember how to write it (except kanji), I can read it… but I don’t understand what I’m reading, which is almost the same as not knowing anything :/
Fabio – Wow, thanks so much!
I’m glad you liked my blog enough to make a new category for it!
Fio – Hmm, well at least you remember some parts of it, that probably means you wouldn’t have to much trouble getting back into learning it (and eventually be able to understand what you’re reading!)
haha also, Fabio – do you mean the bookshelf in the picture that I used for this post? This unfortunately isn’t my bookshelf! Just a picture found somewhere online…