It's similar for me with Hebrew. My sister was born in Israel and Hebrew was her mother tongue until she was two and my parents moved to England. Very soon after, my dad's work took them to Malaysia, where I was then born. Being a Muslim country where Israelis weren't allowed, my parents stopped speaking Hebrew at all. My sister forgot the language and I only learnt English. My mum did teach us some as we grew up, and we spent time in Israel with family but I could never speak it that well. When I was 18, I went there a few months to work and just spend time and I was in this strange limbo between being a national and being a foreigner. I knew I could move there to live and study and throw myself in, or carry on in my English life and never have the chance to speak the language of my mother properly. I chose the latter.