People who speak multiple languages: Do you ever have trouble accidentally inserting foreign words or grammar?
I speak six languages myself (Irish Gaelic, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Romanian, English and Greek)
And I often have a problem with inserting foreign grammer into my words, endiing up in what my friends call "Yoda speak" or when i get frustrated, either cursing in another tongue or translating it into English while cursing.
Does anyone else have this problem?
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November 8th, 2009 at 6:00 am
answer: Occasionally. I can read and write some German and I’m learning Hebrew. It’s kinda fun sometimes. Here in the US people usually only speak one language, maybe two (usually Spanish) unless recent immigrants or children of immigrants.
What language do you dream in?
November 8th, 2009 at 6:00 am
Yes, I do. I speak Spanish and Russian and can read and write Latin, and I mix all three in my speech, especially Spanish grammar since that’s the language I speak best besides English. It’s frustrating because people know I’m good with languages, but then it sounds like I can’t even speak English well!
November 8th, 2009 at 6:00 am
Yes, I speak french and spanish. I mix them up all the time. I used to work as a waitress in a bar in Gibraltar, I would have to translate the menu into 3 or 4 languages a day. I always got it wrong
November 8th, 2009 at 6:00 am
I speak Spanish (native speaker), English, Italian, Portuguese, Arab and a little Creole, but I hadn’t that problem because I think in the language I’m using on the moment. If I’m speaking or writing Italian I think in Italian ,the same with Spanish and the others. Actually sometimes I have to speak more than one language almost at the same time. I work in the hotel and tourism industry and sometimes a person comes asking for something in English and then another person comes asking for info, but in Italian or any other of the language s I speak and if it is almost about the same I explain to both people almost at the same time.
November 8th, 2009 at 6:00 am
Yes, absolutely. I’ll start speaking french, but with japanese grammar, and then I can’t finish the sentence, for example. I tend to confuse Japanese and French like that moreso than English and either other language, because English is my mother tongue, and the other two I learned as an adult.
November 8th, 2009 at 6:00 am
Ya, I speak Mandarin, Taiwanese and English. I currently learning Russian and some times I accidentally insert Russian grammars into English sentences =(
November 8th, 2009 at 6:00 am
Yes; I totally have that problem. The worst part is I don’t notice it, so I repeat what I said when they say "huh?" American Sign Language grammar is so different from English. (time 5:00 will go-to movie t-w-i-l-i-g-h-t == I will go see Twilight at 5:00)
I also have problems with nouns. I can think of the word I want in ASL and sometimes another language, but I can’t think of the darn word in English, lol.
I can only speak English and ASL well. I’m not proficent enough in the others I’ve tried learning to have this type of problem with them, hehe.
November 8th, 2009 at 6:00 am
I have that problem too, I speak Romanian, English, French, Spanish and Japanese
I usually mix up Japanese and Spanish (the words and grammar are different but the pronunciation is a bit alike)
I often forget words when speaking French so i insert words from English
November 8th, 2009 at 6:00 am
My Dad speaks English perfectly. He’s knows the grammer, spellings, pronoucation without accent & exactingly…& how to put me & everyone else included his very educated american born wife to shame. (Actually to polishing his shoes – she won’t bet him on word defintions any more.)
Yet, when we went through Europe, everyone knew he wasn’t american born & insisted I was either Italian or Israeli, but no way American, based on my hair & his way of speaking. It was subtle, but obvious to everyone there.
November 26th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Yeah i know the problem…i speak french, english, german and albanian. So my dreams are in all of these languages, and i often find myself about to say something in the wrong language…like speaking albanian to my french-speaking friends…
July 18th, 2010 at 6:45 am
I have that problem when I spell in English. I can speak Spanish, Italian, Latin and Chinese. However, even though English is my first language, I spell as if the Romance languages were the first ones I learned. I just spell everything the way that I hear it which is mostly the way you would spell in Spanish or Italian. Also, I feel that many words and phrases that are foreign don’t translate the same way into English, so I incorporate foreign vocab into English. For example, if a person is really neurotic and has OCD, in English, you’d probably describe them as having a type A personality. However, I say that they’re ” famas,” a Spanish word that describes perfectionists. I feel that the word better expresses what is being said. But that’s just me.