Can Taking A Break From Language Learning Cause You To Forget What You’ve Learned?

Sometimes we need to take a break from our language learning. Sometimes this is planned, other times it might not be.

However, what we all really want to know is if we will forget everything. This is hard to answer as it depends why you took a break and more importantly for how long and what level you are in the language.

If you break is small, then you shouldn’t really forget anything and then you will find that the longer your break is, the more likely you are going to start forgetting things.

Although, you can quickly refresh your memory, so I wouldn’t worry too much about this problem in the first place.

A Break And Stopping Are Not The Same Thing

You have to realise that taking a break is fine. This is when you plan to do nothing for a few days, maybe even a few weeks, but the plan is to always come back to the language after that set amount of time.

(I’m not talking about the quick 5 minute breaks you have during your study time, where you get a cup of tea and go to the toilet, you need these breaks too)

Taking a break is totally fine and sensible at times, doing this is not really going to affect your long term memory much.

What will cause you trouble is just stopping. You might tell yourself it’s a “break” but if you have no return date set, then you have just stopped learning your language.

Stopping is extremely dangerous for your memory as you are probably going to be away from the language for a very long time, maybe even months or years before you decide you might want to start again.

Your brain will basically sense that you have walked away from the language and will think the information is now redundant. You will just start forgetting things as you have subconsciously given up on it.  Then when do think about returning, you will realise you can’t remember anything and this might just put you off trying to make the effort to refresh your memory.

If you are just taking a break, your brain knows it still needs that information and is less likely to ditch it so quickly from your memory bank.

Breaks From A Language Can Be Healthy

The truth is that learning a language is a long slow grind and it can get tough at times. Sometimes you just need a few days to step away and recover your energy so you can go at it again.

This is actually probably going to be pretty healthy for you and actually something you need to do every now and again.

I do often say that we should be studying every day, but breaks allow your brain to relax and recalibrate and your subconscious has time to process things and just reduce its cognitive load for a day or so.

When you do go back to studying you will be at full power and ready to get back to the slow grind. You will not have forgotten everything, and will actually just be fresher than before.

Your Memory Can Be Consolidated During A Break

Taking a break isn’t always a negative thing for your language skills, it can actually help give your brain time to process and consolidate things.

Constantly learning things can be hard to do and your brain can quickly struggle with this workload, taking a break can give it the time and space to process everything and you may find that you come back after a break being able to recall things a little easier, rather than finding you are forgetting things.   

This is what happens in our brain when we sleep, which is why it is so important. Allowing ourselves a few days rest is going to give us a few nights of sleep where we are not adding anything new to the pile of information that needs processing, which is why it can actually be helpful. 

Anything You Forget Can Be Quickly Refreshed

If you have learned something and then forgotten it, you will usually find that you can relearn it very quickly.

You just sort of refresh yourself on the material and it is like the information comes flooding back. I like to picture it as you have the information in a box, and that box is put away by your brain, deep into storage. It feels like it’s forgotten, but it’s just not accessible. When you see the information again you brain realises it shouldn’t be in storage and then goes in and pulls the box out, putting in a lot closer to where you can easily get at it again, which is why it feels easier to learn the second time .

The truth is that when you do take a break, some things may slip away. It might happen after only a few days, or even a week, but normally you shouldn’t notice any difference.

When things go bit longer, they will be forgotten, but they will also come back just as quickly.  I studied French at school then nearly 20 years later I decided to study it again …a lot of things came back very quickly, especially vocabulary.

You can very easily get back to the level you where at before you stopped, even if that has been a number of years, so I honestly wouldn’t worry about this.

You Will Forget Things Even If You Do Not Take A Break

The reality is that you will forget things, regardless if you take a break or not. The whole process of learning a language is about learning things and forgetting them and having to relearn them later.

It’s annoying at times, but that’s just how it works, you can’t really get around it.

You are also going to get burnt out from time to time, or other things in your life might just get in the way and you will need to take a break.

If you need a break, just take one. Being worried that you will forget something is just stupid, it’s going to happen anyway, so you may as well rest and allow yourself to recover.

You can easily come back to the language and relearn anything and quickly get back to the level you where at before.

The Higher Your Level In A Language, The Less You Forget

You will also reach a point in the language where it “becomes yours”. You will hear people say this, but what they are really saying is that you will not forget this language now. It’s going to be with you for the rest of your life. 

This will of course be the case with your native language; you are not really going to forget it, even if you didn’t speak it for years.

However, you can reach this point in any language. When this actually happens is unclear, but it is usually when you get pretty good at it. You will just reach a point where no matter what you do; you will always kind of have it within you, even if you take an extended break from it.

Some people will say they get a little rusty if they don’t use it for a long time, but they usually find that after a only a few hours of hearing and speaking the language again, they are basically back to the same level again.

This does make sense, the higher your level, the more your brain will have built its network around this language and this will be very strong and it is probably now a permanent feature in your brain. If you have only been learning a language for one day, this network of neurons will just not exist yet, so you can easily forget something you have just learned. 

Conclusion

Hopefully now you can see that breaks are important. You will forget some things, but this is going to happen anyway, so you may as well take the break and recover.

You will also find that the stronger you are in the language, the less you will forget when you do take a break, and even if things do slip away, they can easily be restored and you can quickly get back to the same level as before.   

(You can read more about – Memory Tricks For Language Learning)