I Can't Speak: the Challenges of Bi/Multilingualism

Some of the problems I encountered after learning another language. Have you experienced these problems? What steps did you take to overcome this communication delay? Thanks! -tox

http://www.youtube.com/toxicSwitch

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[randihassel11]

nice page…



[MarieCurie83]

It's really easy, just speaks spanish, risk your life crossing the border and find some job like house keeper...Si señor!!!

[AntacidForTheMind]

I am multilingual and do not have the same problems. The only similar problem I have is switching between languages. If I am on the telephone speaking Spanish and someone in my office asks me a question in English, I sometimes reply in Spanish and vice versa. However, I have no problem remembering words in the various languages. I only become unaware of what language I am speaking until the other person looks at me with a blank look and I realize I'm using the wrong language.

[cryozo]

I speak Swedish, Arabic, English and French.

[NV417]

w8, ppl actually believe this? i thought this was a joke, aint it??

[pitreichert]

My mothertongue is luxembourgish. In addition to that, I speak french, german, english, spanish and hungarian. I spent several years in France, Spain and Hungary. And I still don't have a problem remembering luxembourgish. Even though I lived years that haven't even heard of the existance of my country before they met me, let alone my language. I think what you try to do is to show off that you spent 4 month in Mexico and that you can speak another language.

[polarstream]

I like your discussion of the effects you encountered. I am fluent in German and English. Was in French, but lost the grip on that a bit (still doing well on reading and writing:). Since everything is better the more you practice, I just keep rotating as much as possible. I am watching movies in German and English, reading books in all the languages, my laptop1 is all German, the 2nd all English, my cell phone is French. Bit of a problem is meeting people to speak French atm.

[Toubuki]

I speak Japanese almost fluently, and sometimes I will be talking to friends in English and completely forget the word I'm trying to say. I'll know the word in Japanese, but I'll just sit there for a few minutes before I can actually remember the word in English. And I've taken 3 years of Spanish in school, but I can not speak Spanish without speaking in Japanese now. I've made a fool out of myself in Spanish class because I'll either start in Japanese or Spanish and then switch halfway through.

[DrumersRock]

What an idiot. You dont know Spanish. That doesnt happen for having spend 4 months in Mexico.

[orlandopunk]

the reason why it would take that long is because of differences between English and Spanish. It usually takes 8-10 years for a Spanish speaker to be really fluent in English

on the other hand if an Italian tries to learn Spanish he or she would be able to be fluent in less time because Spanish and Italian are both romance languages