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L2 interfering with L1 | ||
Tags: Language Interference | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| soclydeza85 Senior Member United States Joined 3905 days ago 357 posts - 502 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 1 of 14 09 July 2015 at 11:42pm | IP Logged |
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Every now and then my mind wants to respond to something in German when I'm speaking English with someone. For example, as I mentioned in a previous post, I was asked over the phone what my relationship to my boss was and my mind immediately wanted to say "Angestellter"; I choked and ended up blurting out after an awkward pause "...I work for him" instead of simply saying "employee".
Just today I was out to lunch with my fiance. When I was paying the bill (with cash, which included the tip) the waiter said "I'll be right back with the change". Again, my first instinct was to say "stimmt so", so I choked and ended up saying "...it's fine that way", which is quite an odd way of simply saying the usual "keep the change". The funny thing is, I'm still learning the language and have not yet been subjected to any truly immersive experiences in German (i.e., I've only been in the US since I've been learning). Has anything like this happened to you guys, or have you ever actually followed through and said something in the other language, creating an awkward situation? I figure there must be some funny stories about this kind of thing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| solocricket Tetraglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3674 days ago 68 posts - 106 votes Speaks: English*, French, Italian, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Icelandic, Korean, Polish | Message 2 of 14 10 July 2015 at 5:50pm | IP Logged |
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I always want to say "il faut," because it's just an efficient French way to express that someone or "one" needs to do something. And then I end up saying in English "it's necessary to..." which is just awkward and goofy sounding. I don't think it's too embarrassing though.. :) Also, the phrase "plein de [quelque chose]" comes to mind constantly when I want to express there's a lot of something.
I think my spoken English tends to be peppered with backwards constructions that make sense in French (I could just be overanalyzing), but no one points them out, and as long as I don't do it in a job interview or at work, I should be fine! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5260 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 3 of 14 10 July 2015 at 6:48pm | IP Logged |
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That's great, soclydeza85! This isn't uncommon when one is making a concerted effort to learn a language. It means you are starting to internalize German and that's good. I know, I've felt the same when learning my other languages, especially when I'm on a roll. It's completely natural. I have had similar situations like that before a time or two in public situations here, but I quickly catch myself.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| soclydeza85 Senior Member United States Joined 3905 days ago 357 posts - 502 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 4 of 14 11 July 2015 at 4:54am | IP Logged |
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Ok good, so I'm not just going crazy.
"I think my spoken English tends to be peppered with backwards constructions that make sense in French" I've noticed this too. I sometimes say things a bit differently now than I used to, almost with a different word order or choice of words. But as long as I don't start putting the infinitives at the end of the sentence when speaking English, I'm not too worried about it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4663 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 5 of 14 11 July 2015 at 2:19pm | IP Logged |
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It doesn't happen very often with me and it seems that it's almost always lexical rather than grammatical in nature, e.g. I once asked my wife how her "voyage" was, which, while being perfectly legitimate English, is kind of florid-sounding language when referring to a business trip of a couple days. :-)
Occasionally I will have an idea that I want to express that I know has an English idiom but only idioms from my other languages come to mind. I have never actually slipped into saying the L2 expression in that case, though. I just use a circumlocution instead. Edited by tastyonions on 11 July 2015 at 2:22pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4288 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 6 of 14 11 July 2015 at 8:37pm | IP Logged |
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I said a few times, "It/this/that pleases me" instead of "I like it/that/this", where the
former is a Romance construction. Unfortunately "it pleases me" in English has unwanted overtones. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5169 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 7 of 14 12 July 2015 at 12:20am | IP Logged |
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Every now and then I inadvertently speak the wrong language, especially when I've been immersed in one of
my target languages. And this isn't quite the same thing, but lately I've been stumbling over the pronunciation of random words in English; I'll just be talking and then my tongue will get twisted up. Since I don't have any kind of stutter normally, I think it's due to the fact that all of my reading and a most of my TV has been in Spanish or Polish lately. I have been having much more contact with my languages than I do during the school year, and it is showing. Edited by Amerykanka on 12 July 2015 at 12:21am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| soclydeza85 Senior Member United States Joined 3905 days ago 357 posts - 502 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 8 of 14 12 July 2015 at 1:12am | IP Logged |
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I forgot about writing. I'll catch myself (I used to do this often, but not so much anymore) spelling English words in a German way. "Sh" turned into "Sch", anytime I would write "yogurt" on a shopping list I would start writing "Jog..." and then catch myself. I've also caught myself capitalizing English nouns.
As for French, I'm not deep enough into it for my English to really be affected, though I have been tempted to say things like "Is it that you would want to do that?" instead of the usual "Do you want to do that?". 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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