The calling of our native language(s)

Have you also felt the need to speak, listen to or read exclusively in a certain language at some point in time? And that the books, articles or podcasts in other languages are suddenly no longer attractive? 
To me, it was my native language calling its rights out loud in the past months. And the international day of native languages is the best opportunity to share my story with you. 

I mentioned here my habit of multingual reading. What began as a strategy had soon turned into a routine of speaking, listening and reading in 2-3 languages during the day. But in the past months I felt an urge to read mainly in my first language. Did I give in to it or did I stick to my plan of mixing books, articles and podcasts in different languages?

Well, I chose to follow my instinct. As the photo below shows, I read almost exclusively in my native language. And these are the physical books I finished reading in the past months. The history of the podcasts and videos I played during this time shows also a strong tendency towards content in my first language. The articles I read online and the electronic books are rather multilingual, but they don’t get to restore the balance for the past months.

Without having a clear explanation for my tendency towards input in my native language, I consciously gave into my longing for it. Although I get to speak it at home, in spite of living abroad, I felt that I shouldn’t fight the impulse to make more room for my first language for a while. As much as I support a conscious process of learning and using several languages as often as possible, there are times when it makes sense to temporarily step out of the driver’s seat and go with what feels natural at the moment.

There are some important aspects we could pay attention to when we tend to incline towards our native language(s):

1. Are we running towards our first language(s) in order to avoid using another language that makes us feel insecure or which we find tiresome? If so, let’s look closer into this reason and find solutions for gaining confidence in the language that we’re trying to get away from.
2. Are we generally too tired? Using an additional language requires cognitive resources which, whenever we get too tired, send us the signal that we need to “get back to the basics”, in this case to our native one. Reducing the current overload in our daily life could be beneficial here for making room for a more fluid usage of an extra language.
3. Do we experience an emotional reaction towards our first language? Simply put: do we miss it? In this case, it makes sense to increase the exposure to this language. Sometimes, reading or listening is not enough to satisfy this need, as we might miss using the language actively. So we could look for opportunities to have conversations with others (face-to-face or virtually) in our native language. The main point here is that we produce our own sentences, even if only in writing.
4. In case we have several native languages – towards which one do we lean more now? Once we have identified it, we can go through the questions above to identify possible sources for our current tendency.

As we can see, our first languages are tightly linked to our emotions and our state of mind. In comparison to further languages we might learn later on in life, the language(s) we acquire from our parents (known as mother/native/first languages) shape our identity for a lifetime. So let’s celebrate them every year on February 21st, embrace them and allow them more room in our lives whenever they demand our attention.

When have you last felt the calling of your native language(s)? I’m eager to find out when you heard it and how you reacted to it. Share your story in the comments!

Yours confidently,

Corina