[susan53]

Yes definitely. First of all I speak more slowly than most people, and have cut out idioms and phrasal verbs etc almost entirely. And, like Clive, I often come out with "translated" Italian. It's also affected my listening comprehension - when I watch DVDs I sometimes have to put the English subtitles on to catch everything they're saying, especially if it's an American film.

[clivehawkins]

Quote susan53

It's also affected my listening comprehension - when I watch DVDs I sometimes have to put the English subtitles on to catch everything they're saying, especially if it's an American film.

I'm so happy to read that. I thought it was just me. Especially if the dialogue is too fast , they are mumbling or you can't see the mouth. I guess pretty much the same problems our students have!

[livinginkorea]

For me I was always conscious of it happened to my uncle. He has lived in Germany for over 15 years and he has lost a lot of English. He teaches on a part time basis some evenings and works in a company full time so that is why he is losing it.

I saw that happening to him and vowed that it would never happen to me. My wife felt the exact same as she knew this one teacher who taught kindergarden for seven years and he's English was really bad. So we download and watch a lot of TV shows. I watch the Irish new regularly on www.rte.ie We only speak in English (that's all we know) so that helps too. It's another reason why I want only to teach adults or university students. The only thing that I will lose will be the local slang but that changes all the time.