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Immersion affecting native pronunciation? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| gogglehead Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 6077 days ago 248 posts - 320 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Russian, Italian | Message 1 of 8 07 January 2010 at 1:04pm | IP Logged |
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Some time ago, and after spending significant time in a Spanish speaking country, using only occasionally my native English, I noticed that when I did, my pronunciation of certain words was altered slightly.
Has this happened to anyone else? The phenomena seemed to pass very quickly, for after a short while of continued English usage, my pronunciation returned more or less to normal. However, only certain words seem to be affected ("color" springs to mind, among others). This has also happened in the UK when, after a morning of being surrounded by Spanish-only media, my English pronunciation of certain words can waver, only to be completely restored once again upon contact with English speakers. How unusual is this, if at all? I know that some people are more susceptible to accents than others, but could this be a psychosomatic thing, or just the result of me thinking in Spanish a lot of the time? I would be very interested to know how common this is. G Head 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6013 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 2 of 8 07 January 2010 at 4:57pm | IP Logged |
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Pronunciation is only partially psychological -- the other part of it is physical.
If you spend a year training to cycle, you'll get good at cycling. If you dedicate the next year to swimming, you'll get good at swimming, but even though you still "know" how to cycle, you'll be worse at it because your muscles aren't used to doing it any more. Same with speaking -- when you haven't spoken a language for a while, you've got to retrain the tongue to make the movements. That's not to say that you need to learn again from scratch -- you don't. You know it, so you only need to practise. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| jae Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5666 days ago 206 posts - 239 votes Speaks: English*, German, Latin Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, French | Message 3 of 8 07 January 2010 at 6:10pm | IP Logged |
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I know exactly what you mean, though it doesn't happen to me to an extreme degree. I am living in Germany right now (and thus speak German all the time). When I switch back to English to talk with another native English-speaking person, sometimes it's a little hard at first to stay in English, or I'll mess up on a few words a little. I don't think you're alone on this :)
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| ChrisVincent Bilingual Tetraglot Newbie Mauritius quicklearn.t35.com Joined 5437 days ago 23 posts - 33 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: German | Message 4 of 8 07 January 2010 at 6:38pm | IP Logged |
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Most people in a similar situation would experience what you experienced.
This is because of the Law Of Cause And Effect. While you may have been speaking in English, people have either been replying to you in Spanish or replying to you in the local version of English. So you subconsciously associate their pronounciation with the related word. After a while you find it natural to pronounce a word a certain way and you many even find it normal. It's only when you talk with your fellow countrymen, that you realise the difference. Edited by ChrisVincent on 07 January 2010 at 6:40pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5961 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 5 of 8 07 January 2010 at 6:41pm | IP Logged |
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I have a friend from Hong Kong, who was there through highschool and then attended university in Taiwan. She learned Mandarin in Taiwan and married a native Mandarin speaker. She and her husband are here in the US now. Recently she was told, by some Cantonese speaking friends, that her Cantonese is wierd now. So yes it happens.
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| gogglehead Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 6077 days ago 248 posts - 320 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Russian, Italian | Message 6 of 8 07 January 2010 at 7:28pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the feedback people. It is indeed interesting to know that it happens commonly with speakers of a second language.
I find myself that it happens most with words that have a very similar version in Spanish, for obvious reasons. It makes me wonder if this has ever happened to anyone to such an extreme degree that it changes their native pronunciation permanently. But maybe after a certain age this would become impossible? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ChrisVincent Bilingual Tetraglot Newbie Mauritius quicklearn.t35.com Joined 5437 days ago 23 posts - 33 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: German | Message 7 of 8 08 January 2010 at 5:33am | IP Logged |
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Usually, for adults, the change is temporary.
The original pronounciation is too deeply rooted. The brain connections are already well formed and have been consolidated. This is not the case for children though. So in that case, the local pronounciation will have a greater impact on them and can last for a considerable amount of time, long after they return to their native country. This is especially true for children under the age of 6, where their brain are more receptive to learning (according to psychologists). For them, the new pronounciation can last permanently. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Ncruz Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5540 days ago 31 posts - 56 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Dutch, Portuguese, Afrikaans Studies: French, German, Italian, Russian, Norwegian, Japanese, Scottish Gaelic | Message 8 of 8 08 January 2010 at 6:12am | IP Logged |
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I've had the same experience as you, but also while reading. After speaking Spanish I will often start to read and pronounce English street signs and even books as if they were Spanish. It's kind of annerving.
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