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Forgetting words mid sentence

Alien0n3arth

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.

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  • Yes, I have always had this. In mid sentence there is the perfectly apposite word for what I want to say, only it is not there. Then I have to come up with a work around using a different word or circumlocution. The correct word usually pops into my head within a minute or two, far too late to be useful. In my imagination I liken it to naval gunnery. For medium sized naval guns there is a ready-use shot locker that holds ammunition for the gunners to use, but that is fed from a much larger magazine that is further away. If the ready-use locker is empty, you cannot fire the gun when you want to, but have to wait until the magazine sends more rounds. 

    I think that my 'mental shot-locker' for words is a bit on the small side, and/or that the mechanism for filling it from my 'long-term memory magazine' is slow.

  • in reply to Martin

    Perfect analogy! Waiting for magazine to send more rounds! In my 20's  I had this problem. But people also told me I talk too fast. So I've learned to slllloooowwww dooowwwnnnn. No one notices but me! But by forcing myself to consciously pause when I speak, I give the ammunition time to reload, and don't come up with empty chambers mid sentence like I did in my 20's.

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  • in reply to Martin

    Perfect analogy! Waiting for magazine to send more rounds! In my 20's  I had this problem. But people also told me I talk too fast. So I've learned to slllloooowwww dooowwwnnnn. No one notices but me! But by forcing myself to consciously pause when I speak, I give the ammunition time to reload, and don't come up with empty chambers mid sentence like I did in my 20's.

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