Don’t Lose Your Second Language!
My Personal Story of Maintaining My Second Language and Tips for How You Can Do The Same
Fluent Spanish to No Spanish:
Before April of 2018, Spanish was an integral part of my daily life.
From 2006 to 2010, I studied Spanish language and literature at university, where I had to use it constantly. I also travelled to Mexico and Peru several times a year during that period, even living in Peru during the summer of 2008.
Between 2010 and 2012, I worked as a medical interpreter and translator, so I had to use Spanish every day to do my job.
Then, from 2012 to 2018, I lived in Miami, FL, where Spanish is more widely spoken than English. I worked as a bilingual health educator. Spanish was right there, all the time. I didn’t have to go out of my way to use it.
But in April of 2018, my spouse and I moved to Atlanta, GA, where we live to this day.
While Atlanta does have a thriving Spanish-speaking community, Spanish is not blended into the dominant culture the way it is in Miami. My spouse and the rest of my family don’t speak any Spanish. My job, for the first time in my adult life, does not necessitate the daily use of my second language.
And so, for the past six years, I’ve had to take very intentional steps to maintain my Spanish.
Maybe you’ve also just moved to a city where your second language isn’t as widely spoken. Or maybe you’ve spent the last decade studying a second language and you want to ensure that your efforts don’t go to waste.
Whatever situation you’re in, if that situation doesn’t involve the forced daily use of your second language, you’ll have to force yourself to use it. If you don’t, the language will atrophy.
So…what do you have to do?
In order to maintain a second language, you need to do three things:
- You must formulate a strong “WHY?”
- You must set milestones or goals.
- You must have daily output and input maintenance activities.
Know Your “WHY”
Humans are naturally lazy creatures. Forcing ourselves to do anything, even for our own good, is hard. In the same way you need a strong “why” to hit the gym every day or to eat healthy (other than “it’s good for you”), you’ll need a strong reason to work towards maintaining your language. Because — I’ll be honest with you — it’s work.
Everyone’s “why” is personal to them and to their language journey. My “why” is two-fold: even though my current job doesn’t necessitate the use of Spanish, I have plans to use it in my work again someday to help others, and I want to raise bilingual children. That two-part “why” is enough to keep me motivated to do the maintenance work.
Ask yourself: “Why is maintaining this language important to me?” Extrinsic motivators like being impressive or looking smart aren’t enough. Your “why” must be intrinsic and specific to you.
Set Your Milestones
After you’ve settled on your why, it will be helpful to list a few milestones or goals that you’d like to reach.
Maintaining a language with nothing to work towards can be monotonous and lonely. It’s helpful to have things on the calendar to look forward to.
These milestones or goals could include a trip to a country or city where you can use your language. You might commit to taking a national or international language competency exam.
Personally, I am expecting my first child, who will arrive in about 3 months. As I mentioned before, I plan on raising bilingual children. My impending due date serves as a huge milestone. I need to make sure my language skills are up to snuff so that I can speak, sing, and read to this little one in Spanish.
Daily Output vs Input Activities
Finally, to maintain a second language, you must commit to a set of daily output and input activities. This is because both output and input are important to have well-rounded language skills. Here’s what I mean by output vs. input:
OUTPUT:
- Speaking
- Writing
INPUT:
- Listening
- Reading
If you want to keep up a high level of both fluency and understanding in your second language, then you must do all four of these activities — listening, reading, speaking, and writing.
However, here’s a hard-to-swallow truth pill: if you want to maintain fluency — as in, the ability to effectively communicate with others in your second language — then output is more valuable than input.
This is hard for some to accept and perhaps even harder to enact. In today’s internet age, it is laughably easy to find music, movies, podcasts, books, blogs, videos, articles, and even memes in your target language.
While you certainly need to engage with those resources in order to maintain your language, those things will not help you maintain your ability to think original thoughts and speak those thoughts aloud in that language.
It is harder to write in your target language than it is to read in it, and it’s a lot harder to speak in a second language than it is to listen… but you gotta do it.
Those two things — writing and especially speaking — are imperative to maintaining fluency. You don’t have to write a novel in your second language; start by simply keeping a diary. Make your to-do lists in that language.
Speaking might seem more difficult, especially if — like me — you have “no one to talk to.” There are ways around this. I, personally, speak to my dog and spend QUITE a lot of time talking to myself in Spanish.
I also purposefully seek out opportunities to use my Spanish whenever possible at work and at volunteer opportunities. And, of course, the internet helps here, too. There are countless forums and platforms where you can meet and chat with folks who speak your language, including native speakers.
Try to engage in some form of each of the above activities daily.
Any given day of language maintenance, for me, includes all of the following:
- I read a book (usually on my Kindle so I can easily look up the odd word I don’t know) and journal in Spanish every single morning.
- I listen to Spanish-language podcasts (there are TONS available on Spotify and every other podcast platform for free) on my commute or while walking my dog.
- I watch Spanish television shows (Netflix and HULU) or YouTube videos in the evening.
- I speak Spanish with friends whenever possible and I volunteer my time as an interpreter and translator when I can.
With all of these activities combined, I’ve been able to not only maintain but improve my Spanish!
So Get to It!
You’ve worked hard to learn a second language. Don’t allow your current circumstances to lead you to lose those hard-won skills.
With a little ingenuity and a lot of persistence, you can maintain and even improve your fluency and understanding. It’s a commitment, for sure, but remember why you started learning this language in the first place. Then list out a few goals that will keep you motivated. Finally try to read, write, listen, and speak in your language as much as you can every day.
Use it or lose it, my friends!
