IWTYAL 157: Keeping a language alive after returning home

Libby asks: “I've recently returned home after a year in Germany. How can I keep up my German?”

In this episode:

• It's normal for your language to go through “seasons”
• My Thailand experience, how I feel about it now, and why I'm not worried
• How I learnt Spanish and Portuguese… and didn't use them for years!
• The maturing of my Japanese
• Having lived abroad and experienced what it's like to live a language, going back to studying might feel wrong to you
• You're doing all the right things… reading, speaking etc
• So try to answer the question: “What role does German play in my life now?”
• A new language ultimately exists to use it
• Personally, I don't study my older languages much (if at all). I just use them.

What I do to keep my languages alive:

• Actively search out friends using language exchange sites
• Attend meetups
• Sign up to cultural activities
• Travel to the country
• Invent language-related projects to keep the language in my attention
• Run my own Meetup in London

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Goethe Institut USA Events
• ConversationExchange.com
• MyLanguageExchange.com
• Meetup.com
• Language conferences – see episode 156!

Today's Quote:

“The secret to so many artists living so long is that every painting is a new adventure. So, you see, they're always looking ahead to something new and exciting. The secret is not to look back.” – Norman Rockwell

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Olly Richards

Creator of the StoryLearning® Method

Olly Richards is a renowned polyglot and language learning expert with over 15 years of experience teaching millions through his innovative StoryLearning® method. He is the creator of StoryLearning, one of the world's largest language learning blogs with 500,000+ monthly readers.

Olly has authored 30+ language learning books and courses, including the bestselling "Short Stories" series published by Teach Yourself.

When not developing new teaching methods, Richards practices what he preaches—he speaks 8 languages fluently and continues learning new ones through his own methodology.