Alice, an American living a Geneva suburb, is ‘losing’ English words. Patrick, from Germany, has mastered the Swiss dialect so well, he is forgetting his native language. What is happening here, and are you experiencing this phenomenon as well?
Since marrying her French husband and moving to Geneva five years ago, “I’m forgetting my English,” Alice, 28, told The Local.
As her husband’s mastery of English is minimal, the spouses communicate in French between themselves and with their four-year-old daughter as well.
“As a result, I find myself more and more frequently searching for English words in my mind – words related to childcare, for instance, which I never had to really use in English,” she said.
“It’s really sad, but now French words roll off my tongue more naturally than in English. It’s driving me crazy.”
And then there is Patrick, from Germany.
It seems that he is an anomaly, in a sense that most people like him have a hard time switching from standard German to Schwiizertüütsch, but in Patrick’s case, it’s the opposite.
According to a report in Swiss media, Patrick, a Master’s student in Zurich, learned Swiss-German so well that he’s losing his grasp of standard German while living in Switzerland.
“Swiss-German words are creeping into my speech more frequently now,” he said.
This process began when he moved into a shared apartment with two Swiss women” “They speak Swiss German to me all the time. I think that’s when it really started.”
“My friends in Germany say that my intonation has changed, too.”
Language confusion
While not terribly common, this is a known phenomenon called ‘first-language attrition’ – that is, the progressive loss of proficiency, vocabulary, or fluency in a person’s native language.
Research shows that this happens “when speaking a new language involves actively inhibiting or suppressing native-language words to reduce interference.”
What about you?
Has living in multi-lingual Switzerland caused you to have this ‘language confusion’ too?
Do you feel that you are becoming more proficient in the local language to the detriment of your own?
If so, please share your experiences in the comments section below, or by emailing us at news@thelocal.ch – in whatever language comes most naturally to you!
