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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| kevingreece Newbie United States Joined 3816 days ago 12 posts - 20 votes Studies: Greek | Message 1 of 12 21 December 2013 at 9:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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When you speak a foreign language, do you all have your native language somewhat in the "background";
sometimes stronger than at other times? When I speak Greek, even when the Greek words come to my mind first, there seems to be English words humming along in the background a split second after what I say, sometimes in translation form, or in a random, somewhat incoherent form. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Henkkles Triglot Senior Member Finland Joined 4040 days ago 544 posts - 1141 votes  Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 12 21 December 2013 at 9:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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Not really no. Sometimes when I enter heated discussion in English my English syntax might suffer and start emulating the order in which I would express the things in Finnish, which sometimes sounds goofy in English, but very often I don't even know what the thing I'm speaking of in English is called in Finnish.
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| culebrilla Senior Member United States Joined 3784 days ago 246 posts - 436 votes Speaks: Spanish | Message 3 of 12 21 December 2013 at 10:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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No.
I imagine that the English background will cease when you advance further in your target language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4077 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 4 of 12 21 December 2013 at 11:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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No, if English is seeping into my mind during speaking another language, then that
probably means that I have severe struggles in the learnt language, most likely deficiencies in two crucial aspects, viz. grammatical constructions, and vocabulary. It probably means more practise of grammar, vocabulary, and almost everything else as well is necessary. Not in English, but years ago once in Barcelona, when my Spanish was much poorer than at the current level now, I asked in a restaurant for two glasses of wine (not both for me, but for my mother), and suddenly forgot the word for "glass", instead substituting its French equivalent therein, <<Dos verres de vino blanco por favor...>>. That was a clear indication that I needed to practise vocabulary, if these things happen to me. Also it was quite embarassing, because I had to repeat twice, and he still look puzzled until he finally said, <<O, bueno, dos copas entonces...>>. Because hereof, I felt like a complete idiot for the entire dinner, so I think that if there are signs, one must start practising immediately. Edited by 1e4e6 on 21 December 2013 at 11:45pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| FadedStardust Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5394 days ago 19 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German, Dutch | Message 5 of 12 11 January 2014 at 8:45am | IP Logged | ||
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My problem is not my native English buzzing in the background, but Chinese or one of my other languages. My
brain would have me believe that Dutch and German are close enough that words from one can be substituted in the other 100% of the time (not true of course), and if I fail to come up with something in either, Chinese is 9 times out of 10 the fall back before English ever even gets a shot at coming into my brain. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 3886 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 6 of 12 11 January 2014 at 10:12am | IP Logged | ||
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When I was in my teens I always had English buzzing in the background (it's not my native language, but at the time it was my strongest), even before I went to an all-English upper secondary school. This actually affected my Swedish. I often used the wrong prepositions or created new, but completely understandable, Swedish words out of English words. My mother would correct me constantly. I'm probably making it sound worse than it was, though, since my mother had very high standards. My Swedish teacher adored me and I got 95-100% on tests, and excellent grades on any writing or speaking exercise. When my teacher told my mother about what a great student I was, at one time, my mother responded: "Really? I think that her Swedish is atrocious."
Somewhere along the line I learned to separate my Swedish from my English. In very informal situations I still draw the word I feel is the most expressive first, regardless of the language. In recent years French has started to seep in, in particular when it comes to food or house nouns. My husband and I both forget what things are called in Swedish or English and end up saying them in French because we're too impatient to wait the extra second and a half for the word to come to us (recent examples: navet, panier, phytoépuration, échelle). But that's kind of the opposite of having a language buzzing in the background. That's "in your face" language. :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5553 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 7 of 12 11 January 2014 at 12:53pm | IP Logged | ||
My mum just makes fun of me. Especially when I create new compound verbs in German. :'D 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5515 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 8 of 12 11 January 2014 at 2:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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I didn't experience what you write about but for some reason when I struggle to speak French and I'm missing a word, it might happen that a German word will come out of my mouth. I took German in high school but I've forgotten most of it! I can consciously use an English equivalent but why German vocabulary pops up in my mind, I don't know.
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