Well, from what I have learned from @JonTennent's blog, the shorter the post, the better. Not exactly sure if I totally agree with the philosophy but here is one to stick with that viewpoint.
Topic at hand: multiple languages. My brain is becoming more and more confused by the day. When speaking in English, I will accidentally say things in French (i.e. Ohh, I can't buy that, it's trop cher - ummm, I mean expensive.) But then there are cases where I am speaking in English and the French expression or word just seems so much better so I purposefully throw that in there instead (i.e. 'Ca c'est fait..' which means 'That's done' but in a much more universal manner.). Or, the random times I'm speaking in French and a Spanish or English word slips out. Thanks goodness the words are normally similar.
Oh, and my SPELLING. Atrocious. I have resorted to typing things in Word and seeing if it is underlined in dotted red OR just using abbreviations. Does apartment have one p or two? Apartment, appartement, apartamento. Who knows. Apt. it is.
And lastly, sentence structure. Talking to Marco a few weeks ago, I said "Oh yea, I go often to the store." After it spilled out of my mouth, I was in shock. A native English speaker starting to speak like a Frenchie, putting the adverb right after the verb (go figure).
So warning to you all, if I come back to the US and you think I sound like a skipping disk, just put up with me for a few months until I get me Broca's area straightened out in my brain.
A la prochaine!
you hit the nail on the head with the grammar/syntax problem in speech. i started to revise my sentence structure so Thais would understand me better, but now i just speak like that all the time. unsettling.
ReplyDeleteIt is obvious this is just a sneaky way to brag about how great your French is now...
ReplyDeleteAH so not true. You and I both know I have nothing to brag about.... If I were that good I wouldn't get mixed up at all!
ReplyDelete