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Quick language switching: how easy is it?

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Tap10lan:
This is sort of a reaction to the thread about which language you think in.

When I was little, I learned Finnish, Croatian (archaic), and Swedish from my parents, so that's my starting point.

I can only recall ONE time when I've mixed up language use (unintentionally). In 3rd grade (maybe 2nd?), a classmate in school said my first name, apparently with exactly correct inflection, because I turned around, and said "Sto?" (well, it's a "sch" at the beginning, but I don't know the code for it), that is "What?".
My Swedish classmate was totally lost, and I quickly switched to Swedish.

It's quite possible I've done this sort of thing more times, but since it was a bit embarrassing, I remember that one clearly.

Another variant is the intentional mixing up. Since my Croatian vocab is crappy, I put in German where I know the missing word in that language (since my dad's family's from Austria), and if I'm talking to dad, I take final recourse in Swedish, when I just can't figure out a good word in German. It probably sounds a bit like that guy in Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose" ...

Ana Nymus:
I can't profess to be anywhere near fluent in anything but English, but I've got a pretty good grasp of conversational Spanish from many years of Spanish classes. There have been times where after Spanish class, I'd have to consciously go back to English because otherwise I'd start to respond to people in Spanish in my next class. I got some weird looks.  :P It was even weirder because my thoughts would usually start out in English in my head, then come out of my mouth in Spanish.

viola:
Ohmygodyay!!! More linguistics!!!! *happy dance*

So I am unbelievably guilty of this. I do it all the time, and sometimes without realizing and then the person I am talking to is just like wut and I am confused because I don't know why they are confused.

Basically I use English the most every day, and a few years ago I was in Spain, and then later I went on tour in Italy with my choir, and both times I would go to talk to someone and my brain was like yay notenglish! Let's speak notenglish! And so I ended up telling a Spanish fisherman something about catching crabs for bait (we as kids would run around on the rocks by the beach at low tide catching crabs and giving them to fishermen) in French, and I asked an Italian street vendor if I could buy something also in French. They were both like, uuuh did you mean this instead?

Most commonly actually I mix things up in French class, like the time two years ago we were working on a group project in class and someone asked me how to say something in French, I forget what but it was something like "It will be..." and instead of telling them "Il sera..." I told them "Il mun vera..." (mun vera means will be in Icelandic) and then someone said "um I don't think that's French", and I was like "of course it's French what are you talking about?", and then I looked at it again and... "oh wait no that's Icelandic". Oooopsssss. (We had to redo that part of the poster)

But yeah, when I'm writing French essays I have switched into Icelandic without realizing it and then ending up writing stuff like Cette histoire er um un petit garçon qui était très þ- Waaaaaaait. Þ doesn't belong in French. And then having to backtrack to find and change all the Icelandic words. (The sentence says "this story is about a little boy who was very tired", er um means is about in Icelandic and tired is þreyttur) I have also answered my French teacher in Icelandic and my English teacher in French (note to self: don't schedule back to back language classes in different languages).

I also use Icelandic words to fill in what I don't know in Danish. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Curry:

--- Quote from: Ana Nymus on June 06, 2015, 03:10:39 PM ---I can't profess to be anywhere near fluent in anything but English, but I've got a pretty good grasp of conversational Spanish from many years of Spanish classes. There have been times where after Spanish class, I'd have to consciously go back to English because otherwise I'd start to respond to people in Spanish in my next class. I got some weird looks.  :P It was even weirder because my thoughts would usually start out in English in my head, then come out of my mouth in Spanish.

--- End quote ---

This happened to me allll the time, and I would have to stop myself from speaking in Spanish to my innocent geometry teacher who does not speak Spanish at all. Except, actually, I do kind of think in very mixed-up Spanglish in my head when I'm trying to speak Spanish and for a while after? Weird, I never realized this

Laufey:
Oooh yes, this thread sounds so very familiar.

:finland: Obviously the easiest to switch to, occasional Icelandic or English words can wedge themselves in but only if I've been speaking the other language right before.

:uk: Hard to switch to from both Finnish and Icelandic, both try to force themselves back in. I was talking about this with Viola earlier and figured it may have something to do with how different the pronunciation is, because aside of some utter insanity Icelandic and Finnish are pronounced somewhat similarly. That means that switching to English doesn't only switch the language but the entire pronunciation settings as well which means more work for my already bad-at-multitasking brain.

:iceland: Harder to switch to than Finnish but easier than English, Finnish is better at slipping over the Icelandic than English. Might actually also have something to do with the fact that I hear Icelandic all the time so it's written itself on my brain as "the norm".

:sweden: Quick switch to Swedish from any language at all? Well... I'll try to use more Swedish words than Icelandic ones but no promises.

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