Feb 21 - International Mother Language Day

Hi Gérard, everyone !
Long ago when the channel tunnel was being built and the polyglot café didn't exist, we organized in Calais English speaking or Spanish speaking groups because a lot of people from foreign countries had settled in Calais.
I remember a black south American lady who had forgotten her mother tongue and was happy to gradually remember the words thanks to these groups. It was amazing ! This lady used to follow her husband who worked in different places round the world.
To day I have come across this link about that problem and I wanted to share it with you.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-27690891

Some people have gone decades without speaking or hearing their first language but they retain the ability to speak it easily, says Dr Monika Schmid, a linguistics professor at the University of Essex in the UK. But others begin losing fluency within a few years of not speaking it.

Any of you have experienced that ?

Hi Gérard !
I am happy to observe, thanks to you, that polyglot cafés are useful for native and non- native speakers !