Voicing an opinion as worthless as a wino at a wedding, El Evans MMDeuce
postulated...

We lose our ability to speak and recognize even our native language
pretty fast if we don't use it every day. I've heard of people
picked up from deserted islands who talked almost like "deaf" people
do (that "mumble" that you can "almost" make out what they are
saying). I had a girlfriend who's mother was born and raised in
Japan but lives here (US), has Japanese friends here (who she talks
to in Japanese almost everyday), but has trouble speaking to her
relatives in Japan. The Japanese relatives tell her she as an
"accent" they can't understand.

It comes back pretty quickly, and it takes years to get more than a a
little awkward at first.

Plus language, such as slang, vernacular,
tech-speak, etc., changes so fast nowadays if you're away from a
language a little while, you're not familiar with half the new words
when you get back to it.

Funny how I can watch a 1950s or 1960s movie and never miss a beat
usually. If MM or Jayne or Sharon Tate could be "brought back to life"
today they'd have _no_ problem communicating. Even people who died at
the turn of the century would be comprehensible to any normal person.
The King James Bible dating from the early 1600s is even mostly
comprehensible today. You have to go back to the time of Chaucer for
language drift to pose serious problems to an average person.

Or listen to rap music.
--
slumpy
no more
no less
just me