Quick language switching: how easy is it?

[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.  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]

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.  It was even weirder because my thoughts would usually start out in English in my head, then come out of my mouth in Spanish.

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.

[ParanormalAndroid]

Well, I have a bad habit of just switching between languages in conversation (I have very basic knowledge of quite a few languages), so it's not particularly hard for just simple phrases or words.
Proper, fluent language-switching is super hard, though.

[Helia]

Switch to English and keep talking in English is OK.
Switch to German is OK (?), keep talking in German is the real challenge. (Sooner or later it leads to the question 'do you speak in English?') 

But I can get confused, when I have to switch back and forth between English and Hungarian  (for example translating a conversation). If I'm not in the right mood for the translation, I can forget basic words and expressions even in my mother tongue...

[Haiz]

in norway I may or may not speak a horrid mix of norwegian and english... those are the languages that come easiest to me, and there are already more and more english words sneaking into Official Norwegian Language, and I have happened to switch completely to english on several occasions. But it's not like I can't speak Pure Norwegian if I need to keep up appearances or anything, or vice versa. So no switchy issues on these parts, apart from deliberate mixing.

Czech though, that's a language I only really speak for short-ish periods of time (some weeks usually), maybe twice or thrice a year. I can switch into it without problems, but in the beginning I keep forgetting a lot of words and phrases and do a lot of awkward hand-waving and describing things to have people help me out. I don't really switch to english or norwegian, unless I'm talking to someone who can help me remember a word.

We have guests from Czech or other countries pretty often in our house in Norway, which means there is suddenly a LOT of rapid language-swtiching going on, and that can cause some funny situations. My mother messes up a lot more than I do. One time she spoke several sentences in norwegian at my czech friend, who just looked more and more intimidated because mom did not realize she was speaking norwegian to him at all, heh.

but all three languages are more or less my native tongues - english isn't but I've been learning it since a very young age - and I haven't really put a lot of effort into learning any NEW languages, to be honest. I've had spanish, german and french at school for a few years each, but I've never gotten anywhere close to being fluent or conversional in any of them. I must admit I have no idea how to spanish at all anymore, it's all frenchified.

[Ana Nymus]

Ok, so one of my friends (I'm looking at you, Viola) knows a bunch of languages that I don't and sometimes texts me in them because she can and I have Google translate. But late at night especially, she decides to stop differentiating between languages and it gets very confusing very quickly. One sentence might go like this: English English Icelandic French Danish Icelandic. This is when I tell her to go to bed.

[viola]

Ok, so one of my friends (I'm looking at you, Viola) knows a bunch of languages that I don't and sometimes texts me in them because she can and I have Google translate. But late at night especially, she decides to stop differentiating between languages and it gets very confusing very quickly. One sentence might go like this: English English Icelandic French Danish Icelandic. This is when I tell her to go to bed.

Det er ekki that mal. Just think, you've gotten tones better at identifying strange languages, and sometimes you don't even need google translate to figure out what I'm saying anymore.

[Ana Nymus]

Det er ekki that mal. Just think, you've gotten tones better at identifying strange languages, and sometimes you don't even need google translate to figure out what I'm saying anymore.

Oh, of course it's not that bad. But it probably does mean you should get some sleep. 

[Kizzy]

Oooh code-switching!

I hardly switch between languages when I speak English as I'm comfortable with it. Arabic is another story. I can understand the language and its dialects a bit, but I  cannot express myself well enough. I deliberately switch between English and Arabic which confuses the hell out of my friends. In the end, we've decided its best if I stick to English and they completely speak in Arabic.
I also tend to switch a lot with Spanish and French, especially with numbers. I'll start saying numbers in Spanish then I somehow end with French numbers; no, I don't realize it at all.

I know my mom does a lot of code switching too; from Tagalog to English and vice versa. Then again, there is something called Taglish.

[kjeks]

considering language switching, I can provide you with some theory.
Children growing up with two or more languages (either in bilingual way or in adding a second language after being three years old) learn in which situations a language will be appropriate, so they seldomly switch uninentionally. The reaction to the perfect pronounced name is a regular one, since the brain automatically expexted a native speaker there. Uninentional language switching mostly happens if the speaker knows that all people around him share the same vocab for fitting situation.

Example: You have grown up with english and french. Let's say you grew up bilingual and have a vocab considering "family" in both languages, but "school" is reserved for english. If you do not have friends speaking french there with you, you won't slip into french there without little exceptions. If you have friends there from a french context you might slip into french with them if no one else is around and depending on the topic. Many bilingual grownups have a language they feel saver with if it comes to emotions. They can equally talk about them in both languages intentionally. If they meet someone of the language preferred by the brain in a context that would not require you to keep track which language to use, you will speak a vivid mix of french and english and talk about emotional topics mostly in french (if that is the preferred language) since you know your above can switsch fluently as well.
I know it from german-turkish and german-kurdish pupils mostly. Those never react in their native language to me except if it comes to swears (and that only if they lose controll). If you listen to them on the yard while none of their only german friends is around you will hear school vocab in german only mixed with a lot of stuff in the other languages. School vocab is seldomly referred to in their main tongue at home.

If you not only have gained knowledge about syntax and grammar but as well about what your partner in talks or surroundings are capable of understanding and which language is expected from you, you can intentionally switsch. Bi- and Multilingual grown-ups have advantages here. Those who added other languages later to their mother tongue can gain that fluency as well.

Haiz describes a situation where one of the main languages (norwegian) get's mixed unintentionally since they talk very often in english context. Main language gets pushed aside and mixed. According to literature this mostly happens if one is not able to pay attention to social surroudings (for example if one's mind is busy with planning, trouble...), or knows some words for a situation fitting in one language but not in the other and thus is in unconcious need of mixing.

Eh okay, lecture is over. I am able to switch from german to english and back but still am in need of a dictionary at times. If I expect someone to know bits of german or a language sharing some words, I try to sneak in german words in hope of the person being able to make a guess (I do that while trying to talk norwegian from time to time).

Edit: oha, code-switching describes something rather different, you do not need to speak different languages for that =)

[Kizzy]

considering language switching, I can provide you with some theory.
Children growing up with two or more languages (either in bilingual way or in adding a second language after being three years old) learn in which situations a language will be appropriate, so they seldomly switch uninentionally. The reaction to the perfect pronounced name is a regular one, since the brain automatically expexted a native speaker there. Uninentional language switching mostly happens if the speaker knows that all people around him share the same vocab for fitting situation.

Example: You have grown up with english and french. Let's say you grew up bilingual and have a vocab considering "family" in both languages, but "school" is reserved for english. If you do not have friends speaking french there with you, you won't slip into french there without little exceptions. If you have friends there from a french context you might slip into french with them if no one else is around and depending on the topic. Many bilingual grownups have a language they feel saver with if it comes to emotions. They can equally talk about them in both languages intentionally. If they meet someone of the language preferred by the brain in a context that would not require you to keep track which language to use, you will speak a vivid mix of french and english and talk about emotional topics mostly in french (if that is the preferred language) since you know your above can switsch fluently as well.
I know it from german-turkish and german-kurdish pupils mostly. Those never react in their native language to me except if it comes to swears (and that only if they lose controll). If you listen to them on the yard while none of their only german friends is around you will hear school vocab in german only mixed with a lot of stuff in the other languages. School vocab is seldomly referred to in their main tongue at home.

If you not only have gained knowledge about syntax and grammar but as well about what your partner in talks or surroundings are capable of understanding and which language is expected from you, you can intentionally switsch. Bi- and Multilingual grown-ups have advantages here. Those who added other languages later to their mother tongue can gain that fluency as well.

Haiz describes a situation where one of the main languages (norwegian) get's mixed unintentionally since they talk very often in english context. Main language gets pushed aside and mixed. According to literature this mostly happens if one is not able to pay attention to social surroudings (for example if one's mind is busy with planning, trouble...), or knows some words for a situation fitting in one language but not in the other and thus is in unconcious need of mixing.

Eh okay, lecture is over. I am able to switch from german to english and back but still am in need of a dictionary at times. If I expect someone to know bits of german or a language sharing some words, I try to sneak in german words in hope of the person being able to make a guess (I do that while trying to talk norwegian from time to time).

Edit: oha, code-switching describes something rather different, you do not need to speak different languages for that =)

Eheh, for some reason my brain mixed up both code-switching with language switching. Oops. Code-switching is more of a thing for multilingual from a young age as their native language.

Aside from that, you pretty much described what some linguists, including my classmates back at uni, hypothesize about second language acquisition. It makes much sense and I can relate it. (I wanted to write a longer reply but I'm drowsy) .

[kjeks]

Eheh, for some reason my brain mixed up both code-switching with language switching. Oops. Code-switching is more of a thing for multilingual from a young age as their native language.

Aside from that, you pretty much described what some linguists, including my classmates back at uni, hypothesize about second language acquisition. It makes much sense and I can relate it. (I wanted to write a longer reply but I'm drowsy) .

It is pretty early if I assume you are from the US .

Yeah young children see the languages they speak more as social codes indeed. Especially those who switch strictly between mum-language and dad-language. Then come the point when they realize one of the parents speaks the same language beign spoken at school as well. Or they realize school or kindergarten provides them with a new language. It takes some time before they realise that different situations in even one language only can require them to change codes (like talking to friends uses different vocab than talking to teachers/headmasters etc.)

But this goes for monolinguals as well. Some children are not able to adress people in school with propper vocab since they do not know that code. Especially the kids I teach often come from a rough background, so many techniques of successfull communication are not available for them (yet).

And yeah I am happy to put all the knowledge in here since I have a test about that topic upcomming at the moment