| TallSilhouette said: I took four years of Spanish in high school and got to a conversational level for a while, but even living in areas with large Spanish speaking communities I still basically never used it and forgot most of it over the years. Sadly I think that would probably happen with any other language as well unless I deliberately made time not just to learn the language, but immerse myself in the culture and stay in it, too. This kinda rules out a number of languages I wouldn't mind learning as I have less interest in the immersion components. Still, I love watching videos from polyglots like Xiaomanyc and seeing people light up at being able to converse in their native tongue with a stranger. Maybe I'll find the motivation some day. |
This is probably the story of most Finns. Finland has two official languages, Finnish and Swedish, and everyone has to study the other official language as well. Most of Finland is, unsurprisingly, exclusively Finnish-speaking in practice, so for most Finns, the 'other language' is Swedish. I think currently everyone has to study it for at least four years and probably even years more in practice, and most people probably mostly forget it soon after studies because they don't need it. I know I did. It's definitely much easier to learn it again than learning it from scratch, but even studying for longer than the four years you mentioned isn't enough if you're not actually using the language.
