thescrappyhomeschooler Posted August 8, 2012 Share Posted August 8, 2012 Do you ever get words totally mixed up in your head? I was just telling the baby boy I watch, "Oh, no, don't hurl, Ben. No hurling allowed!" while I was making his bottle. Ds2 says, "Mom, he's not hurling (meaning vomiting). He's crying." I totally meant hurler (to scream or shriek in French) in my head! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deacongirl Posted August 8, 2012 Share Posted August 8, 2012 Yes! Once in the Canary Islands I was with my dh and his German family. Trying to order octopus, in Spanish. I asked for "tinto". Pulpo=octopus in Spanish, tintenfisch in German. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy! Happens to me frequently. My brain can't seem to manage more than 2 languages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deacongirl Posted August 8, 2012 Share Posted August 8, 2012 (edited) Just thought of another one--I meant to tell a professor in Chile that I really enjoyed her class. Except enojar means to make angry--so I told her her class really made me angry, lol! We had some spirited debates in the class, but I did really like her. She was like, "I think that was a Freudian slip!" ha! Edited August 8, 2012 by deacongirl spelling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EducationX2 Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 I'm not even bilingual, and it happens to me. I'd say I'm proficient in French, competent in Spanish, and just started studying Portuguese. English slips into the other three languages all the time (as you would expect...) French slips into all of my other languages also though, which really surprised me when it started. I'll be in the middle of a conversation with someone, in English, and suddenly come to a full stop- unable to come up with the English word I'm looking for, but know the French word for what I'm saying. It happens less often with Spanish, but over the last 6 months has been increasing. I've even written papers that turned out to be half in Spanish and half in French, and not realized it until the paper was returned to me with a large red circle. :lol: Oops!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thescrappyhomeschooler Posted August 9, 2012 Author Share Posted August 9, 2012 I've even written papers that turned out to be half in Spanish and half in French, and not realized it until the paper was returned to me with a large red circle. :lol: Oops!!! I used to do that in college, too. I had taken Spanish in high school, so sometimes when I wrote papers in French classes, a word or two would be written in Spanish. I've had that happen where my brain will freeze on the English word, but the French word will pop right up. But today, I didn't even realize I was not using the correct word at all until my son said something. It was weird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeslieAnneLevine Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Yes, it happens to me de temps en temps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thescrappyhomeschooler Posted August 9, 2012 Author Share Posted August 9, 2012 Yes, it happens to me de temps en temps. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ibbygirl Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 (edited) Yes! Once in the Canary Islands I was with my dh and his German family. Trying to order octopus, in Spanish. I asked for "tinto". Pulpo=octopus in Spanish, tintenfisch in German. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy! Happens to me frequently. My brain can't seem to manage more than 2 languages. You were close though! :) Pulpo en su tinta is a Spanish dish. :) OP it happens to me too. My family speak Spanglish so I'm lucky in the sense that I can go seamlessly from English to Spanish and back again and everyone understands me. It's harder when I'm speaking to someone who only knows one language or the other. I've had times in English where I'm speaking and a word will come to me in Spanish and for the life of me I will not be able to recall it in English. Vice versa in Spanish. Spanglish is really much better! :D hehe Edited August 9, 2012 by Ibbygirl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thescrappyhomeschooler Posted August 9, 2012 Author Share Posted August 9, 2012 You were close though! :) Pulpo en su tinto is a Spanish dish. :) OP it happens to me too. My family speak Spanglish so I'm lucky in the sense that I can go seamlessly from English to Spanish and back again and everyone understands me. It's harder when I'm speaking to someone who only knows one language or the other. I've had times in English where I'm speaking and a word will come to me in Spanish and for the life of me I will not be able to recall it in English. Vice versa in Spanish. Spanglish is really much better! :D hehe When I lived in an apartment with 3 other Americans in France, we spoke franglais all the time. It is much easier to be able to mix the languages together! My sister who lives with me is also fluent in French, and is writing her dissertation in French on a Belgian literature topic, so we speak in franglais to each other at home all the time, too. Drives everyone else nuts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ibbygirl Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 When I lived in an apartment with 3 other Americans in France, we spoke franglais all the time. It is much easier to be able to mix the languages together! My sister who lives with me is also fluent in French, and is writing her dissertation in French on a Belgian literature topic, so we speak in franglais to each other at home all the time, too. Drives everyone else nuts. LOL It's hard to speak and stay in the parameters of just one language. It's so much better to switch back and forth isn't it? :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thescrappyhomeschooler Posted August 9, 2012 Author Share Posted August 9, 2012 LOL It's hard to speak and stay in the parameters of just one language. It's so much better to switch back and forth isn't it? :) Yes it is! So much more vocabulary to choose from! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 LOL It's hard to speak and stay in the parameters of just one language. It's so much better to switch back and forth isn't it? :) Last time I was in Germany, I met up with a Mexican friend of mine. What language to converse in? My native tongue, his native tongue, or the language we were both hearing and speaking to everyone else around us? We just mashed them all together as they popped into our heads. Worked great. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ibbygirl Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Last time I was in Germany, I met up with a Mexican friend of mine. What language to converse in? My native tongue, his native tongue, or the language we were both hearing and speaking to everyone else around us? We just mashed them all together as they popped into our heads. Worked great. :D LOL I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that one. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anne Rittenhouse Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Yes all the time. And it will depend on who I'm thinking about. This happended during a conversation this summer with my parents...quand le sujet est mes amis, je parle francais....mit meinem Ehemann spreche ich Deutsches...and with my son, English. It happened all seamlessly in my head. I never noticed it until my mother said something. I had to make a real effort after that to use my English. Also, my spelling in all three languages is a mess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liz CA Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Do you ever get words totally mixed up in your head? I was just telling the baby boy I watch, "Oh, no, don't hurl, Ben. No hurling allowed!" while I was making his bottle. Ds2 says, "Mom, he's not hurling (meaning vomiting). He's crying." I totally meant hurler (to scream or shriek in French) in my head! :lol: Happens more now (that I am older :glare:) than it used to. It also happens a lot more when I speak to my mother who does not speak English. I constantly combine languages with her. Probably because my fluency is suffering in the language she speaks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miselainia Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 It's a relief to hear that you all get mixed up too! I keep thinking it's not that I multi-lingual, it's that I'm multi-illiterate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genevieve Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Depends on who I am speaking to. If it's someone who only understood English, I converse in English. If it's who speaks Chinese and English, we usually mix it up - phrases or just single words. Now, mixing up Chinese, English and Spanish.... *laughs* Now that's fun! But I don't ranslate in my brain. It's almost as if all these languages are one and the same in my brain but the way I express my thoughts depends on which language comes faster out of my mouth. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ibbygirl Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 Depends on who I am speaking to. If it's someone who only understood English, I converse in English. If it's who speaks Chinese and English, we usually mix it up - phrases or just single words. Now, mixing up Chinese, English and Spanish.... *laughs* Now that's fun! But I don't ranslate in my brain. It's almost as if all these languages are one and the same in my brain but the way I express my thoughts depends on which language comes faster out of my mouth. ;) That would be so funny to hear. hehehe :p Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wintermom Posted August 9, 2012 Share Posted August 9, 2012 I have done this so many times! Norwegian words with a French accent sound right to me, why can't others understand? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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