this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2026
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I used to code switch in my inner monologue. Now it's mostly English. I pretty much only speak my native language with my parents.
The other day I ran into some distant relatives at a new years celebration and one of them remarked that my language was rusty and pronunciation is weird...idk about pronunciation. I don't agree there. But my active vocab in native language is pretty diminished.
Language is like a muscle. If you don't use it, it fades faster than you think.
Yeah fr.
I just don't see any need to improve my native language. I don't need it irl, and I find it pretty boring. Unlike other foreign languages I might learn for fun.
How do you feel about this? My native language is English so there's no real prospect of this happening to me, but I always thought the idea of ones maybe language getting rusty was terribly sad.
Why do you think it's sad?
Language is a major part of a person's identity, usually - it has ties to their ethnicity and culture and because it's fundamental to expressing yourself it's fundamental to being yourself. Few people can express themselves as well in a language they didn't speak in their earliest years, too, though that's a large exception, and of course it's not all of the remainder.
So I see it as sad in the same way that anything that disconnects someone from their roots is sad - if you grow up eating certain foods and later don't have access to them, for example, but more fundamental.
I was always disconnected with my country's culture. Partly because I grew up somewhere else (with a similar culture) but mostly because I didn't leave the house much and spent a lot of time on the English-speaking internet.
But I don't really see it as a bad thing. I try not to tie my identity to where I was born or what piece of paper I was given. I don't like nationalism. I am a human. That's what matters most. Humans are the same everywhere. Of course it's natural for humans to be tribal but I think we should overcome that.
Really my culture is a mix of cultures. I still cook my country's meals. I kept a lot of habits I'm used to. The language is still there, it's just weaker. If I ever feel like it I may revive it someday. But to me that's more boring compared to learning a new and exciting foreign language I've had no contact with.
The negative aspect of nationalism and tribalism, as I see it, is when it's turned negatively towards others, rather than positively towards oneself. Seeing "I'm from X so I'm better than you" is bad, but saying "I'm from X so I enjoy Y" is just culture. Keeping a connection with your culture can give you a valuable comfort - senses of belonging and community that are otherwise hard to replicate.
It does sound like you're the kind of person who wouldn't feel what I'm describing though. I don't mean that negatively either, but just to say that I'm trying to explain what I mean not to say that you ought to feel bad.