Do YOU speak Japanese?

[FoxNtd]

I'm with Gapporin -- studied a bit in college (never quite to fluency), but don't remember much now. The way I see it, the last thing I'll be able to say is "Boku no Nihongo wa, jouzu ja nai", or "Nihongo ga dekimasen".

I laughed reading those sentences. (Particularly 上手じゃない hahaha.) I'm honestly confused how you can study actively for a notable amount and forget almost everything. I haven't studied French for over 8 years and I can still read and write almost as much as I remember knowing about it. Sure I remember some more advanced grammatical lessons but have forgotten their rules since then but overall, it's certainly far from lost. As for Japanese, kanji are a curious thing. Besides how amazing they are, the nature of their function and all, I swear some of them are permanently memorized. For example I don't think I can look at 水 and not know that it is water and how to say it as well. I cannot forget it. I have never forgotten it. There are many words I just know.

Of course I haven't abstained from exposure to the language for a long period of time to see what I forget... I don't want to either.

言語を毎日使ったら忘れられないと思う