spamjwood t1_jdwlth8 wrote
It's not uncommon for languages to get blended together when learning a new one. For example, the term Spanglish is referring to a mix of Spanish and English words. The easiest way to think about this is that when you are first learning a language you are basically learning synonyms for words you already know. Your brain is often consciously translating for you when you want to speak in the "new" language. The more comfortable you get with the new language the less you will find yourself "translating" and instead beginning to speak and think without effort in the new language. My sister-in-law, who speaks a number of languages, says the true sign of fluency is when you find yourself dreaming in the new language. Hope that helps.
GalFisk t1_jdwo3s0 wrote
I grew up bilingual, and in my mind, the things themselves and their words are separate entities. I can imagine a thing without thinking any of the words I know for the thing. I only translate my thoughts into words when I think about saying or writing something.
sweetnaivety OP t1_jdx66pe wrote
But when you're translating your thoughts into words do you ever accidentally use the word from the wrong language in the middle of a sentence?
GalFisk t1_jdx73kt wrote
No. Every language is a context, and switching context takes conscious effort. I sometimes forget a word in one language, but I never forget which language a word belongs to. I grew up speaking Swedish at home and Norwegian with friends. The languages are pretty similar, and Norwegian has many varied dialects, so being aware from the start that language is just a description of a thing, separate from the thing itself, may have helped.
sweetnaivety OP t1_jdxbu0t wrote
That's what I want to know is HOW do you never forget which language a word belongs to? How does the brain do that?
GalFisk t1_jdxdwv9 wrote
"Context" is like a room, or more accurately describing how it feels, an angle. When I look at my thoughts from a Swedish angle, I can describe them using Swedish words. When I look at them from an English angle, I use the words that belong there. They're simply stored in different mental places, or states, and jumping between them takes mental effort. I could try to speak a sentence alternating between Swedish and Norwegian words, but it would be difficult. Staying in place is not.
Interestingly, this context or angle hinges on the person I'm speaking to, and I know a few people who speak Norwegian and Swedish in just the same way as me, and with those I can switch back and forth - not on every word, but every sentence if I wish.
sweetnaivety OP t1_jecmxsc wrote
I just want to know how the brain is so capable of sorting the languages into different "angles" as you put them. That you can never get confused between the two languages, not a single word out of place. I can be pretty scatterbrained sometimes and get confused with things and I forget a LOT of stuff. But if I hear a word in another language I know, I never confuse it for English. Heck sometimes I can even hear a word from another language I don't know but somehow it still FEELS like a word from that language.
sweetnaivety OP t1_jdx5uqh wrote
But people who are bilingual or trilingual don't suddenly start speaking Spanglish to English-only speakers or mixing three languages into one. You aren't just learning synonyms because otherwise you'd start getting confused about which words are English and which are Spanish, or whatever other language.
Of all the bilingual people I've talked to, they never really say a word from another language in an English sentence randomly or on accident. But many many times they have stopped midsentence because they can't think of the word in English, even though they know it in their native language.
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