My mother in law is a Dutch national who has lived overseas most of her adult life. Until recently she could speak 3 languages fluently - French, English and Dutch. For a few months she has been mixing up English and Dutch - speaking to me and the children in Dutch. Usually tapping her on the shoulder and saying English would be enough to get her to change to English. Over the last 2 weeks though she is talking almost of the time to us in Dutch. When I say we don’t understand she gets cross in Dutch and tells us off. She is in a care home and seems to understand that she needs to speak English to the carers..for now!
My question is - does anybody have any experience of this? Will she lose her English completely and end up talking Dutch to everybody? A problem obviously as we are in the UK and nobody speaks Dutch apart from my husband, her son. She’s 78 and very fit. We may have a long journey ahead of us so need to be prepared!
My question is - does anybody have any experience of this? Will she lose her English completely and end up talking Dutch to everybody? A problem obviously as we are in the UK and nobody speaks Dutch apart from my husband, her son. She’s 78 and very fit. We may have a long journey ahead of us so need to be prepared!