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Do you know which language you speak? | ||
Tags: Code-switching | Native Fluency | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| bushwick Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6245 days ago 407 posts - 443 votes  Speaks: German, Croatian*, English, Dutch Studies: French, Japanese | Message 9 of 29 16 February 2008 at 4:57am | IP Logged |
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i think this is a great sign that one actually got familiar with the language.
never happens to me though, if i recall right. 2 persons have 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 10 of 29 16 February 2008 at 5:39am | IP Logged |
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I don't always remember the language in which I got a certain message, - for instance whether I was reading the English or 'the other language' in a bilingual flight magazine or which version I used of a multilungual home page. But this may be just as much a case of bad or selective memory as of 'language neutrality'.
It is more relevant to ask whether something similar happens here and now. And it does happen,- at home quite often with English where I sometimes note that I'm thinking in English, not in Danish. Mostly I don't even remember when or why I switched. With other languages it rarely happens back home, but frequently when I'm travelling, - even with languages that I only classify at the basic fluency level, such as Spanish. But then it probably doesn't last long because I suddenly hit upon something I can't formulate in those languages. So in a sense it has much to do with my skill level in a certain language, but the reason that it happens at all has probably more to do with the fact that thinking in a certain language is an important part of my language acquisition and upkeep process. Correction: I just noticed that the thread question is: "Do you know which language you speak?". Well, I normally do. Edited by Iversen on 16 February 2008 at 7:46am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 11 of 29 16 February 2008 at 9:51am | IP Logged |
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I tend to think in a mixture of languages if I'm not speaking or writing in one of them. Usually there's some reason if I'm thinking only in a particular language while not using it, e.g. if it's something I could write in my livejournal, I may well think in Finnish, if it's language-related and I might post it at this forum, it's usually English, after Latin classes I often think in Esperanto, because I have both languages on the same cards in Mnemosyne, so Latin activates Esperanto (for some reason it's not the other way round...)
With reading it's even more strange. The Western alphabet is so natural to me that sometimes I have a feeling I've just read something written in Cyrillic - and it takes some seconds of staring to realize I haven't. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| vanityx3 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6462 days ago 331 posts - 326 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 12 of 29 17 February 2008 at 1:36pm | IP Logged |
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I don't think I've ever forgotten what language I'm speaking mainly because French is the only language I know a lot about besides my native language.
But I have noticed more and more recently, when reading something in French, I'll totally forget I'm reading in French and think I'm reading in English, just because I'm really comfortable reading in French. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| badger2 Senior Member Finland Joined 6612 days ago 156 posts - 156 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish, Finnish | Message 13 of 29 18 February 2008 at 4:00am | IP Logged |
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I just spent a weekend with a group of Finns, to whom I would normally speak in English (and they to me in Finnish). This is because my conversational speed is still pretty slow.. but if it was a simple phrase, or a topic I knew well, I could squeak by in Finnish.
Anyways, the entire weekend was English and Finnish swapping back and forth with no rhyme or reason, other than which language would be easier to express oneself. This morning, I was thinking about a couple of the conversations, or specific things that people had said, and I really can't remember if they were in English or Finnish. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| cothromóid Triglot Groupie Ireland Joined 6147 days ago 77 posts - 78 votes Speaks: English*, French, Irish Studies: Spanish, Italian | Message 14 of 29 18 February 2008 at 3:28pm | IP Logged |
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On switching to an English speaking television channel after watching TG4 (the national Irish language television
station) I sometimes find myself still in "Irish mode" and have a moment where I'm listening to English but can't understand it/ 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Yukamina Senior Member Canada Joined 6265 days ago 281 posts - 332 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean, French | Message 15 of 29 18 February 2008 at 6:37pm | IP Logged |
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I'm not fluent in Japanese, but there are times I can't remember if something simple I heard or thought was in English or Japanese.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Topsiderunner Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6919 days ago 215 posts - 218 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Arabic (Written) | Message 16 of 29 18 February 2008 at 6:49pm | IP Logged |
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This isn't exactly on topic, but the first time I watched "Life is Beautiful" (I didn't know any Italian then), I was so engrossed in reading the subtitles and listening to the Italian that when the Americans pulled up in the end and shouted "Hello", I thought they were Germans!
2 persons have voted this message useful |
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