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Not know what language you’re hearing | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| glidefloss Senior Member United States Joined 5966 days ago 138 posts - 154 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 1 of 19 23 January 2015 at 4:12pm | IP Logged |
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Does this ever happen to you? You don't register on which language you're hearing, but you understand it? My
Spanish is still pretty bad, but my understanding has improved, and sometimes I don't remember if someone was talking to me in Spanish or English, or whether I just watched something in Spanish or English. When I watch TV shows, for instance, I'm just following along mentally with the plot, and not noticing the actual words. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4097 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 2 of 19 23 January 2015 at 5:13pm | IP Logged |
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Sometimes I don't notice switches between French and Breton, but mostly I'm aware of what language I'm listening to. I don't forget that I am listening to English or French, just because I don't have to make an effort. With friends whom I speak several languages with, I am aware that we switch when we do switch (and often try to figure out the cause of the switch).
I often don't recall which language I heard or read something in, though. I used to associate video with English, so for a long time I remembered everything I had watched in French as if though the dialogue had been in English. French film quotes were stored in my head in English, even though I don't mentally translate while watching. Since I now have very little exposure to English media, instead my mind has started filing English films under French more frequently. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| robarb Nonaglot Senior Member United States languagenpluson Joined 5057 days ago 361 posts - 921 votes Speaks: Portuguese, English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, French Studies: Mandarin, Danish, Russian, Norwegian, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Greek, Latin, Nepali, Modern Hebrew | Message 3 of 19 23 January 2015 at 7:34pm | IP Logged |
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Interesting, this never ever happens to me. I always seem to pay some attention to the surface form of language. I
notice people's accents. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5128 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 4 of 19 23 January 2015 at 9:30pm | IP Logged |
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This happened to me once, but it wasn't exactly not knowing which language I was hearing, rather which language I was answering a question in.
I was in a restaurant with my ex-wife. Our daily language was Spanish, as such that's what we were speaking. Throughout the meal, our waiter would come around, refreshing our water, asking if we needed anything, etc. in English. At some point, I guess because he heard us speaking Spanish, he asked if we wanted more wine in Spanish. I answered in English, as I'd done throughout the evening. I wasn't aware until my wife pointed it out to me. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hribecek Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5347 days ago 1243 posts - 1458 votes Speaks: English*, Czech, Spanish Studies: Italian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Toki Pona, Russian | Message 5 of 19 23 January 2015 at 11:31pm | IP Logged |
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At the Polyglot Gathering in Berlin somebody asked me from behind where I'd got my T-
shirt from (a language lover one) and even though I understood the question, I couldn't reply because I couldn't register what language he'd just asked me in. I looked at him for a few seconds and tried to repeat what he'd just said in my head so that I could realise what language it was before replying in the same one. It was Czech. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| carlyd Groupie United States Joined 3987 days ago 94 posts - 138 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 6 of 19 23 January 2015 at 11:57pm | IP Logged |
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I was walking into the library for a meeting (before it opened) and a man asked me about the library hours. I answered him and continued on to the meeting. The person behind me asked what language I'd been speaking. Totally stopped me because I wasn't even aware that I'd been talking in anything other than English.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6907 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 19 24 January 2015 at 1:14am | IP Logged |
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Is this like the Barry Farber paragraph about not knowing which language you spoke during your date the night before (*yawn*) or not knowing if the language you hear is just similar to something else you know?
If the latter, it might happen if somebody spoke Galician (and I thought it was Portuguese) or some of the smaller languages in Spain (and I thought it was Spanish). For any other slightly mutually intelligible combo, my level would be too low (if I look at the languages in my profile). Or is it like the case when a bunch of university students from India happened to pass by the information desk at the library? They asked me (in English) where they could get access cards. One of them quickly explained in their native language where they could get them - I heard ONE loan word ("reception"), saw where he pointed, and then I said something like "Yes, he's right, you have to go to the reception desk". The group got very surprised and immediately asked me if I spoke Punjabi... Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 24 January 2015 at 1:29am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| glidefloss Senior Member United States Joined 5966 days ago 138 posts - 154 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 8 of 19 24 January 2015 at 8:12am | IP Logged |
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Who is Barry Farber? The radio show host?
I think this is a disadvantage if anything. Maybe it comes from switching often between languages and not understudying one of them very well. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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