I was B2 in Danish. Super proud of it. I started learning German. I got to B1 level super fast and notice I could no longer speak Danish. Tried to revive my Danish and could not come back to any level of active fluency and now have my German all wrong.
The part of my brain that stores German words is the same as the part that used to store Danish words. This is crazy and I am depressed.
I need both languages and now I am frustrated I lost them both after working so hard.
I no longer have the time I had when I learned Danish and got to B1 in German.
The greatest problem is the frustration.
Edit: I spoke Danish on a daily basis and worked with a Danish speaking team. I even taught a seminar in Danish. I had my Danish accessed as well. So yes, I was B2. I now study German because my team speaks German and I no longer work with any Danish speaking person. I have not had any contact with a Danish speaking person for years. I tried to maintain my Danish, but for the last year I needed to learn German and what I described happened. The two languages are confused in my brain. I am not trying to learn a bunch of languages and give them up. Life happens and I want a way that I can keep my Danish. I love Danish. I need German to improve my life at the moment. If I could keep only one, I would keep Danish, but I need German.
I had the same issue with French and Spanish. Once I started practising them side by side, the issue resolved quite quickly (in about 7–8 weeks).
By 'side by side', I mean that I make sure to watch or listen to something in both languages every day. Although I only actively study Spanish, I listen to a French podcast and watch a French video every day. Next year, I'll switch and do it the other way around. I was quite advanced when I started switching (B2/C1 level).
One thing that can help is the 'mental castle' technique, where you imagine being in a different room when studying or speaking one language, and changing the room when switching to the other. It helped me a lot, each of my languages has a room that’s designed with the specific culture in mind.
Here's a neurological fun fact: all languages are stored in the same part of the brain. They all get activated at the same time when we speak; we just need to learn how to suppress the ones we don’t want to use.
What a wonderful idea !
I did something similar in my Anki decks: blue background for Spanish, red for French. Worked great.
Thanks for the tip!
I used to study French as a part of my university programm, and then was forced to switch to Spanish. I don't actively practice French for about 3 years at this point, but still to this day when I have to say something in Spanish—French pops up in my mind instead. The fact these two are so close is both a blessing and a curse and definitely you have to use some techniques to compartmentalize info inside your head.
Hate to tell you, but If you lost fluency that easily you weren't a real B2.
Focus on one, you'll get up to speed quite quickly. Learning two very similar languages at the same time is very difficult and not recommended.
The easiest way to separate them is to focus on one first and get one really good before learning the other. I don't mix Spanish and Portuguese because my Spanish was already advanced before I started Portuguese. French doesn't mix into the others either for the same reason.
It is normal to have a tiny bit of overlap sometimes where your brain might suggest a word in the wrong language sometimes but you can definitely separate them enough to be able to speak both well
id dedicate more time to one language but then do some listening practice with the other. your brain needs to do some filing and sorting. with some patience and a bit of time, you should get them back. it is a lot easier to relearn a language than to learn one from scratch!
Schedule classes in Danish and classes in German and they'll sort themselves out.
I am super worried I could face the same issue with Italian and Spanish when I even do a bit of watching a movie in Spanish or travel. I am trying to thus focus on Italian even dropping the third language, Finnish entirely for the time being and increasing listening, speaking, reading, and writing in Italian. I suggest the same in the one you have the strongest current need / desire for.
My native language is Spanish I also speak French (C1) and I understand like 70% of Italian without ever having to learn it. Also, in Italy I tried to speak English with them and I had to switch to Spanish to get anything done 😅. So learn one, the other not really necessary
I don’t know if Mexicans understand Italian as spoken vs Spanish or Argentine / Uruguayan people who probably have more experience and cultural crossover and I would rather try to speak Spanish personally since I already know some from 4 years of high school and 1 year of college. I already have a base. My point is that I don’t want to resume active studies in Spanish till my Italian is stronger. I do want to improve my Spanish skills too but not at the expense of Italian.
In your case sure you are a native speaker of Spanish and it is a better bridge to Italian than English. Sure there are “amici falsi” and things in Italian that don’t quite match Spanish, but there are also many similarities more than English.
This is why I’m learning one of each loll Finnish Norwegian mandarin Spanish and English is my native. I tried Swedish for a few months and instantly said NOPE. Because it was messing up my Norwegian
Oh, crazy this. But you don't forget. Practice the language and see the magic
i’d be interested to hear how you determined that you were ever truly at a B2 level.
i speak 7 languages (4 fluently, 3 i am actively studying) and i would recommend that you stop “flipping the switch” from one language to another. when you are focusing on german more intensively, you still need to hear danish input on a regular (if not daily) basis to maintain your level.
make it a goal to listen or read in every language you speak/study every single day - even if only for a few minutes. this does wonders to passively retain your level. i am C2 in spanish and C1 in french & Russian - i no longer need to actively studying these languages but i make sure i listen to a podcast, watch news, read a book, or even just text friends in that language nearly every day.
I spoke Danish on a daily basis and worked with a Danish speaking team. I even taught a seminar in Danish. So yes, I was B2. I now study German because my team speaks German and I no longer work with any Danish speaking person. I have not had any contact with a Danish speaking person for years. I tried to maintain my Danish, but for the last year I needed to learn German and what I described happened. The two languages are confused in my brain. I am not trying to learn a bunch of languages and give them up. Life happens and I want a way that I can keep my Danish. I love Danish. I need German to improve my life at the moment.
sounds like you need to make some Danish-speaking friends. no wonder you’ve lost your language skills if you haven’t spoken it with anyone since studying german. good thing we can talk with native speakers at the tap of a finger now
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