Second language woes :)

Hello Arkaf :) Did you learn both languages together? For me, I learn both English and my mother tongue together so teachers will write in my testimonials "effectively bilingual". ^^ I don't have a problem like yours. It could be because both languages are vastly different. It could be because I learned them together when young. Or it could be because?? :PPP

I am at work and thanks to your discussion, I just did it over the air to the Fire Dept. I meant to say "please" and said "por favor" English is my first language, but I am fluent in spanish. I read, write, and speak it. I translate at work and my husband is Cuban. We speak mostly english at home, but we still speak spanish at times. Sometimes when i am translating, I turn to the person I am supposed to be translating for and repeat word for word what the other person just said instead of translating into the proper language..lol. Once I was trying to tell my mother (who speaks no spanish) that I had heartburn, but for the life of me, could not remember how to say it in english. I kept saying it in spanish and trying to explain it to her, because I truly forgot the word !! My brain gets all mixed up sometimes..lol.

Ha, ha...I think that we are having the same problem with beach or sheet....(you are not the only one) I remember (about 18 years ago) friend's face when I was looking for an eraser, but I said the I need a rubber....and I didn't know why his face was red... I don't mix languages. I think in language I am having conversation at the moment. I am not sure what language is in my dreams....maybe I have to think about tomorrow morning when awake... One is for sure; my dogs and my cat are bilingual... If lost in foreign place I always use sign language...lol HUGS!

I haven't been on this discussion board in months but I still keep track of the discussions here and when I saw yours, I knew that I had to respond. My first language is English but I have had a few similar experiences such as you mentioned back when I also could speak French. I wanted to write about an English-English problem that I am having though. I was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm a couple of years ago. I had also had some brain damage in the 90's from some injuries but, with training, the other side of my brain had taken over and most of the problems had sorted themselves out. When the aneurysm was discovered, however, I was advised to leave work and go on disability since I was in a highly stressful job. Since then, I joined Pogo where I could play a lot of games to keep my mind active. I try to challenge myself but I have noticed that my oral language skills are declining even though I have three university degrees. Short-term memory and language were two areas that were affected when I was injured. Through hard work, I was able to basically fight them so that no one could notice but now it has become really apparent. I am constantly forgetting what word I want to say. I know in my mind what word I want to use but it won't come out. Instead, I will say something that has nothing whatsoever to do with what I am discussing. Often, I will try to use some form of sign language but my husband will have no idea what I am trying to say. The injuries left me almost the same as someone who has had a stroke in that area, except not as badly. It is so frustrating, especially since I know how I used to be. It does not seem to have affected my written skills, just my oral ones. My husband cannot understand why I like to be on the computer so much now...gee, I wonder why. After all these years, a doctor has finally requested brain injury trauma assessment for me and although we really don't have that in our area, I am now starting a programme with Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy and Speech Therapy. They are hoping to retrain my brain to deal with the remaining problems...the ones I have complained about for over 15 years. So, I do understand your language difficulties but I thought you might be interested in hearing from someone who is having 2nd language difficulties....with their first language.

English is the only language I have ever been able to speak fluently. I tried and tried to speak spanish and it just never stuck with me. I have a friend who speaks spanish as her first language and she will start talking to me in english and the more involved she gets in telling me her story the more her words start slipping into spanish. It starts out with When I went to the mall today there was this guy and by the end I am pulling out my spanish to english dictionary trying to see if she was calling me a nasty name. lol

I grow up in multilingual country. we use Indonesian as primary language, and since I come from Chinese ethnic, Hokkianese is my second tongue. English came later when I studied at school, added as third language. and Chinese is the latest one I learn. mostly I still use Indonesian language, but I communicate in English on the Internet. :) too much language would be confusing sometimes. especially when not everyone understand the same languages. I mean, sometimes when I forgot about one word in Indonesia, but I still remember the English or Chinese word, that would be hillarious to have people guess the exact word I meant. :P

When I read your comments about your hesitations at using some English words I thought: "Her mother tongue must be Spanish", because your doubts were my own doubts. But then, in (or "on"?) your profile I saw a photo of a Portuguese flag, so I concluded you must be born in Portugal. But after that I realized you live in Canada, so may be English was not your first language because you were a Quebecois. Anyway, I found your comments most amusing. I can't remember any funny situation about misusing a word in particular, but I still blush when I remember the following anecdote. Many years ago I was in a little town in Germany and, being my last name of German stock, I tried to make myself understand in that language with the hotel keeper. I didn't pay attention to the fact that my knowledge of German was the fruit of only one year of study. So, after listening just a few words, the man asked me if I spoke English. I nodded, but insisted with my precarious German, so the hotel keeper thought my English and my German were alike and asked about my French. I answered: "Oui, bien sure!" but I was so nervous by then that I couldn't change "my software" and went on trying to speak in German. On the brink of a nervous breakdown, the man asked me: "But, what language can you speak?" When I answered "Spanish", he sighed and said: "I don't speak Spanish". I don't remember what came next, but the fact is that I got a room that night.

lol..you are not alone. English is not my first language either...but I think in English and speak more English than my first language. Most of my misunderstandings are based on the pronounciation of certain English words in the local language. I've heard various pronounciations and I always stop and think before I reply nowadays. There is a joke about how Malayalis (that's the language I speak - Malayalam)speak. How does a Malayali spell 'moon'? Ans : 'Yam'-'Yo'-yet another 'Yo'-'Yan'. There are all sorts of jokes about how Malayalis speak (and every region in India). in fact the word 'joke' is pronounced as 'jaw-k'. But now that I am used to various dialects and pronounciations, I know what I hear..lol And in India, it is quite common to mix English with a regional language...so no one's ever surprised when you slip into the local language or Hindi mid sentence. Off late, I'm thinking so fast in my head and my words are slower than my thoughts, I catch myself saying 'chop the vessels' when I mean 'chop the vegetables'.

well English is not my first language either. My first language or mother-tongue is Bengali. But there are many English-medium schools in India where English is taught as the first language and the student has the choice of taking either the mother-tongue or the national language Hindi as the second language. I went to one such school so in the school leaving certificate, my first language is English, second language Bengali and Hindi is my third language. Besides this, whenever we are speaking we always tend to mix languages. It is only as per requirement that I speak only English otherwise I am more confident speaking benglish (mix of Bengali & English) or hinglish (mix of Hindi and English) hehehe. I also face the same problems of searching for words like when I am writing these responses, I am thinking of a particular word which is very common in Bengali but I just cant find the exact word in English. It will come to me eventually but maybe a few hours later and by that time, I have used another word. It is frustrating, I know.

i'm italian, i live in a little city, no tourist, i'm learn a few english and french, but scool lenel, i use englhis in egipt an i in mylot for learn , but are very hard, and i love sing in english, but are a few a little i knoe...sorry please. i know very very well italiano......ahahah bye kiss myryam

I can't relate to your story because I only speak english but I do have to tell you that I did find it very entertaining. I have a good & vivid imagination and caught myself giggling as I read. I'm sure others can relate. I work next door to a chinese restaraunt and so I am dealing with their accents and lack of english all the time....it gets pretty funny at times. I found that they write better english than they speak.

my mother tounge is hindi i speak hindi since my childhood i think in hindi, dream in hindi, like u becuse this is my mother tounge. All my relative naighbour speak hindi, but due to my neighbours i can speak some outher language whenever i in a good mood i speak they languages, i can speak punjabi, maithili, & some bhojpuri, enlgish too. now days i spend my time to learn english because this langugae is very imporatant in working sector. could u sujess me better idia that how to learn english for that i will able to speak english soon

I also have a second langueage that takes over my sub conscious every now and again. I talk write and think in english and i barely even talk in spanish( my second lnagueage). At times howver when ive been talking alot of spanish i do find myslf thinking in spanish.

I always want to improve my English...no matter what i do ,it's no effect for my English study ..sometimes i really want to give up ,but i couldn't.bucause English is one of the most important still for our life,when i need to talk to some foreigners,i have no idea,just smile..so sad

I was educated using English as the medium of instruction, though it is not my native language. I'm pretty good at writing in English, but speaking is a different story. I have bloopers sometimes. Like one time I was playing golf with my cousin and instead of saying "crappy", I said "We're using the creepy ball." I always mix up "nice to meet you" and "nice meeting you". Like when saying goodbye to a person I just met for the first time, I always say "nice to meet you". LOL

LMAO! What a great story! I know you're not the only one who goes through that, as I've heard other friends talk of it before. Me, I'm "boring". I only speak English. I took French in school of course, but not enough to make me think in French. Just enough to understand the odd French dialogue/monologue here and there. You had me gigglesnorting when I read that you want to tell your friend she sometimes sounds like a chicken! BWHAHAHA!! Too funny!!!

English is my first language and french is my second language. I currently do not speak french on a daily basis but as it was my major in university I had to spend thre months in a french speaking environment. I also did geographie and economie in french in highschool. I have no idea what any of the geographical or economical terms are in english and after spending three months of speaking only french I found it extrememly difficult to speak in english when I got home. Especially to people I did not know personally. The night that I moved back home my family took me out to supper at a restaurant. I kept asking the waiter for things in french and saying 'oui' and 'merci' when he spoke to me. My neurologist was from India and had such a strong accent I kept replying with "oui" even though I knew he was not french. The accent just tripped me up. I also can not, for the life of me, spell gouvernement in english unless I look it up first. When I very first moved to the french speaking community I found it impossible to think of all the french words I needed, but as I learned so much there I still often find it hard to think of some words in english for subjects that I never learned in egnlish, like, we did a class based entirely on the culture of the place I lived.