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CuteTC: Yes, I have heard of this occurrence. Perhaps you can use Google Translate. I sometimes 'speak' to relatives in Slovakia and Norway, who typically use their native language. Recently I received a Christmas card written entirely in Norse.
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Yes, my father’s first language was not English. Neither was his second language. Eventually he became a very good English speaker but not completely fluent. As he has gotten older he sometimes doesn’t speak to me in English at all. He doesn’t even realize it until I answer back in English since I don’t speak his language. It is a little scary to think that as he gets older I may not be able to understand what he is saying.
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Yes! My husband, a Hungarian refugee, occasionally speaks to me in his native tongue, then wonder why I don't understand what he's telling me. It's not at all uncommon for older people in general to revert.
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Yes, absolutely. My mom moved to the USA 50 before she passed away 4 years ago at 96 years old. She did not have diagnosed Alzheimer’s / dementia. Her English started diminishing gradually but about 1 year prior to her passing she could no longer speak English. My dad never learned how to speak Portuguese as they met in the US. Somehow my dad managed to take care of her until the end. I am really proud of him for doing so as now he is dealing with his own Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

I see this happening at my dad’s AL with other residents as well.

Best wishes to you as you go through this phase with your loved one.
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This is super common. Should your mom ever have testing done, whether it’s the 3 word/clock drawing test or more extensive cognitive testing done, please let them know that she is bilingual or multilingual and that has to, HAS TO, be taken into consideration as to how the tests are administered. They need to allow more time for her to “process” as what she will probably do is take the word and remember it in English then translate it to German to remember it and have to try to reverse the process 15 - 20 minutes later when she’s asked to recall the words. She’ll be stressed and feel rushed and maybe just not answer. Which throws the whole thing off and it’s all useless.

Gerontology practices affiliated with a teaching hospital and a medical school with have testing in different languages as it’s required under federal funding. Likely translators on staff as well.
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It sort of makes sense because dementia seems to erase things from the brain starting with most current. Patients seem to be able to tell you very detailed info about something that happened many years ago, but can't hold on to more current info. So it would seem she is losing the more current English language and going backward to when she was a child.

For you, this is double the trouble because she's losing her short term, or the thing she tried to tell you just moments ago. So she can't even remember what she just said.

iTranslate is an app for iPhones and Google Translate is for Android phone. You might read up about these two and see if there's a way to keep them open all the time so it catches what she says in German as she speaks. That might help to prevent any delay in you asking her to repeat something.
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Yes, as my 68 year old wife's Alzheimers has progressed, her ability to speak and understand English has declined. I was stationed in Germany with the US Army and was fluent in German when I first met my wife, however, she did not speak English. Once we moved back to the US, she slowly learned English and I slowly forgot my German. Not only does it make caregiving difficult for me or in-home caregivers, but it's heartbreaking not to be able to understand her final words to me. Even if I tried to use an app to translate, I still know enough German to realize that a lot of what she says is, unfortunately, simply gibberish. We still communicate with our eyes, a kiss, a hug, but I'm slowly losing her to this horrible disease. I miss her.
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My aunt frequently reverts to her native language which is Greek. She goes back and forth between that and English. She just turned 90 and has serious dementia. She lost my uncle in March of 2020 suddenly and could not be with him when he died at the hospital due to Covid restrictions. We think the grief exacerbated her dementia. She was a terrific cook and now can't do any of that.
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