My family immigrated from France to the United States when I was around 3 years old. While young enough to not remember much of France, french was my first language and I came into preschool not knowing english. As I grew in America my english has improved as it was the language I practiced the most. Over time, however, my french has gotten worse, especially relative to my age. When I was in middle school (around the ages of 11-13), I couldn’t write in french at all and I could probably read at a grade school level at best. Luckily, at that time, my school started offering foreign language classes and I could enroll in french for an easy passing grade.

Looking back, taking these classes throughout my mandatory schooling helped me immensely; but even after these courses, I struggle with the language. Now that I’m not longer in school, I practice french much less than I used to. I can’t write a single sophisticated sentence in french without some kind of grammar error. When I speak, I’m bound to forget how to say a basic word. Speaking in french long enough, I’m bound to say something that will confuse a native speaker because I said something that doesn’t make sense in french. It’s beyond frustrating trying to say something in french but you can’t because you forgot a critical word or phrasing that is on the tip of your tongue. It’s something I could know and say instantly in english, but in french I have to say something I want to say that should only take one sentence in ten sentences.

I even find my accent slipping. Speaking and pronounciation used to be easy for me, but these days I’m finding myself struggling with a lot of words. Every mistake is a mild source of embarrassment. I fear that in a couple of years I’ll be unintelligible. My comprehension is still pretty good, but everytime I don’t understand something, I wonder if it’s normal that I didn’t understand or if it’s because I’m forgetting. Every unfamiliar phrase is a moment of self doubt, self reflection, and a google search.

Luckily, things aren’t set in stone. Learning languages is just about practice and I could become very proficient in french again. I’ve started doing things to help prevent the decay of my french. I try and consume as much french media as I can. Listening to a lot of french music and watching french films are things I’m already doing and could increase my consumption. I read french news such as articles from AFP and should read more french sources as it’s good to have a diverse news source anyways. I should follow french politics more and listen to debates or discussions, it’s not something I do currently but it would be good.

Two other things I considered was getting more french speaking friends and writing blogs in french. The latter would be immensely beneficial for me but incredibly frustrating, at least starting out. Like I said before, I can’t write out a single phrase without a spelling or grammar mistake; it would be an ordeal. By ocntrast, getting more french friends would probably give me comparable benefits but would be the easiest way to learn or preserve my french. Currently the only preson I speak to in french is my father and a friend I talk to once every couple of weeks. If I could increase the time I speak french to just 20 minutes a day. I think I could quickly recover my skills. The last thing I could do is actually live in France, I think within the month my french would be nearly indistinguishable from a native.