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losing my language

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

At first, it seemed that learning the Japanese language was having no impact on my English skills. My smattering of German and French were evaporating, to be sure, but aside from some wobbly new grammar turning up, my English was as is.

No more.

It's vocabulary that's going. It took me a full three minutes to remember the word "sandbox" when discussing Ken's activity at the playground near our home (the so-called Shinkansen park, so named for its great viewing of the Shinkansen that run out of Shinagawa station nearby).

And it's not because I use the Japanese word for sandbox instead of the English word. I have no idea what the Japanese word might be. No, it's just simple erosion of a language that I still use every day but no longer really use with full fluency.

I hope I learn a lot more Japanese before my English vocabulary descends into some sort of Bushian primitive ramble.