Why do I feel like I'm losing my native language skills?

Feeling like you're losing your native language skills is a common experience called language attrition that occurs when you don't use a language regularly in your daily life. This can be particularly distressing because your native language is often deeply connected to your cultural identity development, family Interpersonal relationship, and sense of self. Language attrition can affect various aspects of language ability including vocabulary recall, grammatical accuracy, pronunciation, and fluency, and it can happen gradually over months or years of reduced use. The experience can create Anxiety disorder about losing connection to your cultural heritage and difficulty communicating with family members who primarily speak your native language. Language attrition typically occurs when you're immersed in an environment where a different language is dominant and your native language isn't regularly reinforced through daily use. This commonly happens to immigrants and their children, international students, or people who move to regions where their native language isn't widely spoken. Even when you continue to speak your native language at home, if most of your professional, academic, and social interactions happen in another language, you might notice changes in your native language abilities over time. The degree of language loss varies significantly between individuals and depends on factors like age when you reduced native language use, how much you continue to use the language, your emotional connection to the language, and whether you have opportunities to use it in complex or formal contexts. Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to language attrition because their language systems are still developing, but adults can also experience significant changes in their native language abilities if they don't maintain regular practice. Vocabulary is often the first area where people notice changes, particularly for specialized terms, formal language, or words related to specific cultural concepts that don't have direct translations in the dominant language. You might find yourself struggling to remember words that were once automatic, or you might notice that you're thinking in the dominant language and then translating back to your native language rather than thinking directly in your native language. Grammar and sentence structure can also be affected, especially complex grammatical forms that aren't used frequently in casual conversation. Pronunciation might change as your mouth and ear become more accustomed to the sounds of the dominant language. You might develop a slight accent in your native language or have difficulty with sounds that don't exist in the language you use most frequently. This can be particularly noticeable when you return to your home country or speak with native speakers who haven't experienced language attrition. However, language attrition is often reversible with intentional practice and exposure. Unlike learning a new language from scratch, reactivating dormant language skills typically happens much more quickly because the foundational knowledge is still present in your brain. Regular practice through conversation, reading, writing, and media consumption can help maintain and restore language abilities. The key is finding ways to use your native language in meaningful and varied contexts rather than just basic family conversations. Consider incorporating your native language into your daily routine through music, podcasts, books, movies, or online content. This exposure helps maintain vocabulary and keeps you connected to contemporary usage and cultural references. If possible, seek out conversation partners or community groups where you can practice speaking in more formal or complex contexts than typical family conversations. Writing in your native language, whether through journaling, social media, or correspondence, can help maintain grammatical skills and formal vocabulary. Don't be discouraged if your language skills feel rusty at first - this is normal and typically improves quickly with practice. Language abilities often return more rapidly than they were lost, especially if you had strong foundational skills. Consider that some changes in your language use might reflect natural language evolution rather than loss - languages change over time, and your language might be different from older generations for reasons beyond attrition.