Has anyone here such issue? I struggle with it for at least 20 years (I'm in my late thirties) and it happens consistently, that I forget words that I already know. It happens in all foreign languages I speak (English, German and Russian) and also in my first language.
It causes me a lot of stress frustration and anxiety, that I will forget the word again. I tried to research on it, because I got afraid that I may have developing Alzheimer, but it seems to not be the case. This is what I found in Google:
- Passive vs. active vocabulary: You may understand a word when reading or listening (passive vocabulary) but struggle to recall it on the spot for speaking (active vocabulary).
I don't experience any other memory changes over the years, I have brilliant biographical memory (I remember events like movies with unusual precision and details, also events that occurred and places I visited as a toddler). I seem to relate to this piece of information above. Does anyone else experience this? How to deal? I remember a situation before my B2 German exam, I prepared speeches in various topics, given in advance. But I really struggled to recall some words and they were quite trivial words. One of them was Spedition. This is an international word, that sounds similar in all the languages I speak. And still I had to repeat this word before the exam because I noticed I tend to forget it frequently in speech. And as a result I forgot this exact word during the exam. I got maximum points anyway. I have good linguistic skills but this problem made it impossible for me to become a translator (once my dream).
Does anyone here relate to this? How to deal? I recall once I saw a video of a youtuber Orion Kelly, he mentioned this issue and it was supposed to relate to autism. It was just one youtuber and maybe the information is fals. I tried to check but couldn't find anything else about it.
