Forgetting a language within two months

It has been two and half months since we moved back to the Uk from Munich and my 5 year old son was speaking perfect deutsch when he left, he continued to do so up until a couple of weeks ago. Now when his friends call him from Germany he can't respond he's umminng and not being able to speak german to his friends, his best friends! Now I feel really sad, I missed Munich terribily but was pleased that my child bought something back with him, the language, but i didn't realise a language is forgotten so quickly. Now I really feel we have left Munich behind...

I´m not surprised , i once read a statistic that a child can very easily pick up a second language up to the age of twelve . However , if he stops using his second language before the age of seven , he forgets it very quickly . Its strange how the human brain works

i know he is a bit young but maybe if you gave him a beer it might flow more easily? i know that works for lots of people.

Oh Scotte , you're soooo funny! Maybe I will!!

But I don't drink alcohol! Slight problem eh? Keep your advice to yourself if not useful.

Schotte, it always helps me spit it out, but never retain anything new as a brewer, its hard for me to take people who don't drink beer seriously

Me neither. We have friends (he British, she German) who had two kids in Hamburg & bought them up bilingual. Then they moved to the Wirral & after not too long their kids "went on strike" and refused to speak German.

crazyme, bite the bullet and let him watch DVDs in German, one a day. And look for a German ex-pat community, get a weekend playgroup together.

If there is such a thing as a bilingual pre-school there enroll him in one. Or some kind of playgroup, kindergarten, something where he can practice his German.

There isn't anything like that here, Iguess dvd's in german is my best bet

Perhaps try here: http://www.deutsche-in-london.net/forum/

my sister had fluent German, but at age 4 she went on strike too and only spoke English. Unfortunately she won, and as a teenager had to learn German again as a beginner. So if you can at all, keep the German language in his life otherwise it will be largely forgotten.

@crazyme: don't you speak to him in German anymore? I would have thought that would be the best way to maintain his fluency. You know, like "willst du keine suessigkeiten, kleiner?"

It takes me 2 minutes from leaving lessons for me to forget German.

I really wouldn't worry about this too much, i left Munich ca 1990 and didn't return to this fair city for around 4 or 5 years and guess what?

My German was still crap!

So it didn't affect me at all.

My German has always been crap and very broken, so speaking to my child in german is difficult

Maybe you could also get a German nanny who would practice German with your child a few hours every week. Maybe do this at a time of day when you can do other things so you also profit from spending the money by having a few childless hours every week.

Children tend to pick up languages faster than adults do, but they have to keep up the practice otherwise it is soon forgotten! The opposite seems to be true of adults.

Ask your son to teach you a bit of German..

I'll just share a family experience. My cousins lived in Switzerland for a time and their youngest who was playing with friends for a some months ended up speaking French so well that when the family was looking for a larger place, she was instrumental in barganing down the landlord to get a good house rent!

They hired a Swiss nanny upon their return to Canada to keep it up and have never regretted the decision. Although French is a second language here in Canada, in the Western part of the country it's not common enough and the nanny became a real advantage. It worked out well, as one of the two kids (grown up now) continued with the language and ended up studying more in Europe.

Don't see why this can't also work in German too. Also I think the nanny will solve the friend issue especially if they're young enough, so they'll be able to stick with it and not feel that they're under any pressure.

hope that helps
sf2k

I agree with the nanny thing but beleive me no german nannies come out in this neck of the woods, and also I'm living with in laws till my husbandreturns from Munich andstarts his job in London, where we will eventually move. o really we haven't adfinate place where we will be living, which makes it difficult looking for jobs, nannies etc. But the idea about my sn to teach me germansounds good. I think I willpush himto speak deutsch ith me and correct me when need be!!

TERRIBLY SORRY!

how was i to know you were one of them ?

I spent a week in Munich last week with my son for his half term holidays, and was very surprised at how quickly the German language came back to my boy when meeting his deutsch friends!!! So children don't forget as quick as I thought.

Get a satellite and a receiver that gets the free German Channels.My mother did that and keeps her hand in wi the awd Deutshe Sprache