So basically, I have a problem recognizing my "level" in English. My native language is Portuguese, and i've basically learned English on my own. This is important, because i never had any kind of english taught to me in a formal setting, and had to rely on Youtube videos and films and an old Edgar Allan Poe short story collection I had at home, to build my vocabulary and understanding of grammar. In a formal setting, you have oral exams, and a pronunciation guide; two things i never really bothered learning beyond the basics (which are obviously required to actually read something in a language), when studying english. I never cared about this because i'll probably never visit an anglophone country anyway, and i already have what i want from english (I can read and listen any material without any problem, even though reading Shakespeare and Faulkner is quite hard).
My problem is that now I want to learn French, and i'm scared i'll lose english in the process. I've read on the internet that you should have a very good level of conversational fluency not to lose it. A friend of mine told me you have to basically be near native level in proficiency to not lose it, and that even then, the brain can mostly hold on to two languages, a native language and a second language, and that since learning French means that i'll be studying it intensively, it will, little by little, 'replace' English as my brain's second language and that i'll basically shoot myself in the foot if by trying to learn it, especially if i drop it. He said it happened to him. He started learning German, didn't finish it, and even though he had a very good grasp of english prior to that, he ended up forgetting a lot of it, and had to spend months of studying grammar, and reading, to regain his English...
So how could i do any better than my friend? I'm now scared to even touch a French textbook. I can't stop imagining the catastrophic effects on my years of learning English that could happen if i even see another French word in front of me. If i'm being honest, i'd much rather have English as a good second language than French, assuming everything my friend said is true. It's just much more important, and 90% of the content i consume on the internet comes from English anyway.
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