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Which languages do you mix up? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5924 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 1 of 24 05 December 2010 at 3:01am | IP Logged |
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This topic is targeted at people who speak/study multiple languages and sometimes find themselves confusing them.
I sometimes confuse Greek and Spanish, which seems strange at first as they aren't closely related, but I think the reason may be that I learned, or started learning, both when I was very young. I understood that they were not English (my first language), but I don't think I was quite able to differentiate between these two non-English languages for some time. It's gotten better as I've gotten older, but it used to be that when I would go to Greece for the summer I would come back and have forgotten Spanish to the point where I couldn't speak it at all, and the same would happen to my Greek when I returned to school (where I would speak mostly Spanish). Another interesting combination of confused languages is Japanese and Swahili. Again, these languages aren't even related! My best guess as to why I might mix them up is because they are the only two non-Indo-European languages that I study actively (Esperanto excepted) and are perhaps placed in a separate category in my brain because of that...? I find that in my Japanese class at school I often catch myself about to say a Swahili word like samaki instead of sakana for "fish." Now that I think of it, it seems that this is a purely one-sided interference; my Swahili interferes with my Japanese but never the other way around, unlike my Greek and Spanish where it is mutual. I don't think it's surprising that I confuse German and Dutch. This was a big reason why I decided to stop my Dutch studies for a while earlier this year--because I wasn't comfortable with the detrimental effect Dutch was having on my German. Only now that I'm feeling quite a bit more confident in German am I allowing Dutch back into my schedule. In this same category, Swedish sometimes poses some problems (mainly with Dutch), but not nearly to the extent that Dutch and German have on each other. Perhaps it's surprising then that I don't confuse any of my Romance languages--at all! Not even Portuguese and Spanish, which are very close indeed. How strange. What about you? Which languages do you find that you confuse most often, and why do you think that is? Edited by ellasevia on 05 December 2010 at 8:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5548 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 2 of 24 05 December 2010 at 3:15am | IP Logged |
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Japanese and Spanish verbs. It just seems to make sense to me to say 'tomaru' and 'ganbarear'. (Well, I realize the mistake before saying it out loud.)
The reason for that is probably the proximity of their phonological inventory. I also try to use Spanish grammar for French, which often enough works just fine. That's typically when I haven't internalized the French way of saying it yet. And then I mix up idiomatic expressions in all of my languages including German. It's a kind of 'wanting to say two things at once syndrome'. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| JPike1028 Triglot Senior Member United States piketransitions Joined 5179 days ago 297 posts - 337 votes Speaks: English*, French, Italian Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Portuguese, Czech | Message 3 of 24 05 December 2010 at 4:49am | IP Logged |
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I tend to confuse Spanish and Portuguese if I confuse anything. Truthfully I confuse Spanish with a lot of things. In other words, any time I try to speak in Spanish it ends up in either Italian or Portuguese namely because I am a lot less interested in Spanish than the other two.
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| arturs Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 5053 days ago 278 posts - 408 votes Speaks: Latvian*, Russian, English | Message 4 of 24 05 December 2010 at 7:36am | IP Logged |
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I usually confuse German with Dutch, because sometimes I want to construct Dutch sentences in a German way, but that's not always correct!
And also Danish with Swedish. Sometimes when I read something Swedish I catch myself reading and pronouncing the words in a Danish way! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| weshdim Senior Member Australia Joined 4981 days ago 19 posts - 31 votes Studies: Mandarin, Arabic (Levantine) | Message 5 of 24 05 December 2010 at 8:23am | IP Logged |
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Irish and Mandarin at little.
For example 他是 (tā shì) is like the Irish "tá sé" and actually means the same thing as a complete phrase. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| The Real CZ Senior Member United States Joined 5431 days ago 1069 posts - 1495 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 6 of 24 05 December 2010 at 8:48pm | IP Logged |
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I confuse Korean and Japanese every once in a while. Having a lot of Chinese-based words that sound similar and nearly identical grammar, it just naturally happens.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ratis Hexaglot Newbie Germany Joined 4885 days ago 28 posts - 43 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Latin Studies: Czech, Japanese Studies: Hindi | Message 7 of 24 05 December 2010 at 9:37pm | IP Logged |
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Ellasevia, I wish I could say the same about my Romance languages, Italian and Spanish. I
can relate to your German/Dutch experience with these two. That's why at some point I decided to put Italian on hold and continue to study Spanish only for some years. I recently became interested in Italian again and found it a bit easier now that I'm more advanced at Spanish and don't actively study it any more, but I still have to do Spanish <-> Italian vocabulary training to be able to keep them apart. I noticed I tend to confuse languages that I study in parallel and where at the same time I'm at a similar level. I even mixed up Dutch and Czech. The greater the difference in proficieny, the less likely this becomes. I guess it's more about the parts of your brain you're using than about features of the languages concerned. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6441 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 8 of 24 06 December 2010 at 12:41am | IP Logged |
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When I try to speak Portuguese, sooner or later it becomes some other language. Mostly, I end up thinking--and then speaking--Spanish. Once in a while, it's Italian. My New Year's resolution for 2010 is to straighten this out.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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