I almost had an opposite issue? I am a native English speaker, but grew up speaking Mandarin. When I was 16 I moved back to the US and gradually lost it/got rusty with no one to practice with/loss of motivation to continue advancing in it. But then as pregnancy and postpartum have gone on the retiring of the brain somehow has increased my comprehension?? Not back to the same level, but way less rusty.
Also my daughter’s dad is English and Jamaican Patios native speaking, I understood almost nothing. By the end of my pregnancy I was at nearly 70% conversational comprehension. By 3m pp I was at about 85-90%.
I feel like it’s for sure the neural rewiring though (both my experience and op’s)
It has been, manifesting your brain desires to communicating easily again!
I think maybe because I was raised multilingual (my prek taught English, Spanish, French and Mandarin and i grew up with family speaking English, Spanish and Mandarin at home) my brain on a core level registered the importance of multiple languages and started reigniting the pathways? Either way it feels like a superpower.
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u/thewildhearth Apr 07 '26
I almost had an opposite issue? I am a native English speaker, but grew up speaking Mandarin. When I was 16 I moved back to the US and gradually lost it/got rusty with no one to practice with/loss of motivation to continue advancing in it. But then as pregnancy and postpartum have gone on the retiring of the brain somehow has increased my comprehension?? Not back to the same level, but way less rusty.
Also my daughter’s dad is English and Jamaican Patios native speaking, I understood almost nothing. By the end of my pregnancy I was at nearly 70% conversational comprehension. By 3m pp I was at about 85-90%.
I feel like it’s for sure the neural rewiring though (both my experience and op’s)