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Bizarre language phenomena | ||
Tags: Memory | Comprehension/understanding | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6152 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 1 of 9 15 March 2011 at 12:04pm | IP Logged |
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I don't know if this has ever happened anyone, but recently I overheard a foreign conversation I understood completely. The odd thing is I can't remember what language they were speaking. It was either French or Spanish, but I can't remember which one.
Have you ever fully understood a conversation, but struggled to remember what the language was ? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5382 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 2 of 9 15 March 2011 at 3:09pm | IP Logged |
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This would imply you are not a detail-oriented person. You probably tend to remember general things or the general meaning of an utterance rather than the smaller details such as which word was used, etc.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 9 15 March 2011 at 4:32pm | IP Logged |
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If you watch a documentary on Danish TV the interviews may be in a variety of languages, and in between there may be speech in Danish or in another languages with subtitles. And often there are several programs about the same theme from different countries. So if I have got a certain piece of information about for instance sharks I can have heard it in at least half a dozen languages, and if I have forgotten the source I will often also have forgotten the language of the source.
However if you ask me right after the program I'll probably remember both who said it and in which language. I suppose that's quite normal. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6143 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 4 of 9 15 March 2011 at 7:57pm | IP Logged |
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My grandfather speaks several languages (about six, I think) and when I see him he sometimes addresses me at random in one of those. I can understand him immediately but I usually have to pause for a moment to figure out which language he had just used before I can respond.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Hashimi Senior Member Oman Joined 6260 days ago 362 posts - 529 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)* Studies: English, Japanese | Message 5 of 9 15 March 2011 at 8:43pm | IP Logged |
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It remembers me when I was a child. We lived in Malaysia for one year, and my father does not speak Malay, so he always speak in English. At that time I understand English to some extent, but now when I remember the conversations between my father and his friends, I recall them in Arabic not English. It seems that my brain stored the conversations in a language other than English or Arabic (maybe Brain's language?), then when I try to recall them, it translates them into the language I know better. This does not happen with English conversations I hear recently, I usually remember them in English not Arabic, I think this is because my English has improved a lot in the last few years. (I hope!) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| prosaic Diglot Groupie China Joined 5802 days ago 44 posts - 58 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, French Studies: German, Russian, Esperanto, Latin | Message 6 of 9 16 March 2011 at 9:58am | IP Logged |
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Ah, no such luck for me. I never have doubt which one it's been of the barely plural languages I know. Wish one day I had a profusion of them to "rub together"! Edited by prosaic on 16 March 2011 at 10:20am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Nguyen Senior Member Vietnam Joined 5094 days ago 109 posts - 195 votes Speaks: Vietnamese | Message 7 of 9 16 March 2011 at 12:18pm | IP Logged |
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I was just on the train today and heard a couple speaking in Indonesian. I haven't studied this language much but I was able to understand alot due to cognates, not a mastery of the language but similarity to others. I am in Singapore right now so I see alot of Behasu Malay on signs etc here. I think it is interesting though.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| iknowchristalen Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 5344 days ago 20 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, Japanese | Message 8 of 9 22 March 2011 at 4:39pm | IP Logged |
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I've had it happen before that I hear something in German and understand it but within a few seconds I can only repeat it in English like my brain automatically translated it for me and threw away the original copy. Doesn't happen so often now but sure threw me off at the beginning.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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