Hey Steve,

I've been listening to your YouTube videos for a while and they are awesome. I'm fluent in Swedish, Finnish and English. I have an okay level in Spanish, and I'm currently learning Dutch (my girlfriend is 50% dutch so that's a big help).

Now that's a lot of languages, and you know even more, which makes me curious: how do you maintain your languages?

I'm going take a wild guess at what your answer is going to be. You don't maintain languages, you simply do what you enjoy. Sometimes you might listen to a Spanish podcast, while at other times you're into a Russian book.

Am I close to the mark here? ;)

If I am, doesn't that mean that you sometimes "lose" languages, or become rusty in them? If you haven't spoken German in two years and come across someone from Berlin, you can't take advantage of the opportunity as well.

Cheerio!

By the way, this would make a great video (for YouTube). I've searched your videos, but couldn't find one specifically on this topic.

Sorry, I seem to have missed this question. I find that if I learn my languages through massive input, listening and reading, I tend not to forget them. I think it is easier to forget languages if we learn them more academically, in other words, learn the grammar and even words through artificial learner content.

I have lots of books and audio books in many languages. If I need to refresh, I just listen or read.

Thanks for the answer, Steve!

I've found the same thing to be true with my Spanish. I think I've listened to/watched over 600-700 hours of content in Spanish, and when I go back to Spanish, it's still very much there (i.e. my comprehension is top notch), but my speaking has gone downhill a bit because I haven't used it since 2010.

Don't you find your speaking (output) skills a bit rusty if you take a few years off from producing a language?

Over and out!

Yes my output skills get rusty but they soon return if I have a chance to use the language. Often they return stronger than ever, especially if I have been learning other languages in the meantime.

BTW, thanks for the nice comments about my videos. I have a look at your blog too, looks interesting!

Very cool, and very motivating. Makes me more inspired to learn languages than ever before.

And thanks for the kind words.

Dina videos på YouTube är mästerliga, så om du fortsätter producera dom så fortsätter jag kolla ;-)

Tack igen för hjälpen!