petermorwood: kaderp: taichikitty:justgot1:cricketcat9:artykyn:prideling:gunvolt: im going
petermorwood: kaderp: taichikitty: justgot1: cricketcat9: artykyn: prideling: gunvolt: im going to have a stroke Instead try…Person A: You know… the thingPerson B: The “thing”?Person A: Yeah, the thing with the little-! *mutters under their breath* Como es que se llama esa mierda… THE FISHING ROD As someone with multiple bilingual friends where English is not the first language, may I present to you a list of actual incidents I have witnessed: Forgot a word in Spanish, while speaking Spanish to me, but remembered it in English. Became weirdly quiet as they seemed to lose their entire sense of identity.Used a literal translation of a Russian idiomatic expression while speaking English. He actually does this quite regularly, because he somehow genuinely forgets which idioms belong to which language. It usually takes a minute of everyone staring at him in confused silence before he says “….Ah….. that must be a Russian one then….”Had to count backwards for something. Could not count backwards in English. Counted backwards in French under her breath until she got to the number she needed, and then translated it into English.Meant to inform her (French) parents that bread in America is baked with a lot of preservatives. Her brain was still halfway in English Mode so she used the word “préservatifes.” Ended up shocking her parents with the knowledge that apparently, bread in America is full of condoms.Defined a slang term for me……. with another slang term. In the same language. Which I do not speak.Was talking to both me and his mother in English when his mother had to revert to Russian to ask him a question about a word. He said “I don’t know” and turned to me and asked “Is there an English equivalent for Нумизматический?” and it took him a solid minute to realize there was no way I would be able to answer that. Meanwhile his mom quietly chuckled behind his back.Said an expression in English but with Spanish grammar, which turned “How stressful!” into “What stressing!” Bilingual characters are great but if you’re going to use a linguistic blunder, you have to really understand what they actually blunder over. And it’s usually 10x funnier than “Ooops it’s hard to switch back.” I use Spanish and English daily, none is my native language. When I’m tired or did not have enough sleep I loose track of who to address in which language; I caught myself explaining something in Spanish to my English-speaking friends more than once. When I’m REALLY tired I’ll throw some Polish words in the mix. There is nothing more painful than bad fake Spanglish by an American writer. Bilingual people don’t just randomly drop words in nonsensical places in their sentences ffs. “I’m muy tired! I think I’ll go to my cama and go to sleep!“ Nobody does that. From my bilingual parents: - Only being able to do math in their original language. “Ok so that would beeeeee … *muttering* ocho por cuatro menos tres…” - Losing words and getting mad at you about it. “Gimme the - the - UGH, ESA COSA AHI’ CARAJO. The thing, the oven mitt. Christ.” - Making asides to you in Spanish even though you’ve told them to not do this as lots of people here speak Spanish. “Oye, mira esa, que cara fea.” “MOM FFS WE’RE IN A MEXICAN NEIGHBORHOOD.” - Swears in English don’t count. - Swears in Spanish mean you’d better fucking run, kid. - Introducing you to English-only Americans using your Spanish name so that they mispronounce your name for all eternity because that’s what your mom said your name was. “Hi Dee-yanna!” “sigh, Just call me Diana.” “Yeah but your mom said your name was Dee-yanna.” - Your parents give you a name that only makes sense in Spanish. “Your name is Floor?” “No, my name is Flor.” “FLOOR?” “Sigh.” One of my favorite was when a friend of mine was trying to say, “Marriage is between a man and a woman” in Spanish, but mixed up “hombre” with “hombro,” so it came out, “Marriage is between a shoulder and a woman.” Another easy mix up is when someone tries to say they’re embarrassed, but use “embarazada” instead of “avergonzada” and end up saying they’re pregnant. Another time, I was trying to say the days of the week in Spanish, but could only remember them in French, even though it’s been years since I’ve taken a French class and I’ve used Spanish a whole lot more since then. Whenever I say a word more frequently in Dutch and then have to say it in English I will still say it in Dutch Or I’ll forget how to spell anything lmao Useful info for writing. People speaking a second language don’t revert to their own language with simple words. They know the simple ones well enough. When they default their own language it’s for unfamiliar words and concepts or technical jargon.Clumsy reminders that a character is foreign by dropping “oui / ja / si” into otherwise fluent English is TVTroped as “Poirot Speak”, though when Hercule Poirot did the “funny foreigner” routine in-canon, it was usually a deliberate tactic to make people treat him less seriously than they might have done. It might also be a source of misunderstanding and humour. Transposing a letter in German changes the pronunciation and thus the meaning: “Schiesse!” (shee-seh) means “shoot!” with a gun but “Scheisse!” (shy-seh) means “shit!” and is a mild swear (BTW “shoot” isn’t a substitute).“Speise” (shpeye-seh) means food (”Speisekarte” is a menu) but “Spiesse” (shpee-seh) means skewer, so “aufgespiesste Speise” (owf-geshpees-teh shpeye-seh) should be skewered food, but probably isn’t.Using a verb instead of a noun in French changes the meaning: the noun “un baiser” (oon bay-zer) is “a kiss”, but the verb “baiser” has become “to shag” - so saying “baiser-moi” (bay-zeh mwah) can have unexpected consequences. The verb “to kiss” is now “embrasser” (awm-brass-eh.)And so on. Languages are fun. They’re also full of pitfalls, so if someone’s daughter has a little pet donkey, be careful how you say “she’s got a cute ass” to her father… I’m bilingual and would say that if I’m lazy, I’ll use the more concise/easiest/flows the best words when speaking Spanglish or whatever other language I’m learning. My reading comprehension is way better than listening, so sometimes my brain doesn’t register that the language changed. For example, I say I’m muito lo tired rather than estoy muy cansada. Don’t even know how to say it in Portuguese either. It’s just rolls of the tongue easier but makes it seem more passionate than just I’m very tired. I probably say muito lo [insert English adjective] more than I should. Was yelling at my sister and meant to express “I have [one]” and said “yo have” and didn’t realize that was wrong That moment when in Spanish, you’d use the verb cumplir but it’s English translation doesn’t fit right with what you’re saying, so you think of at least 6 other Spanish verb that translate to something close but it’s missing that exact feeling….so you change the sentence completely. Or when you mix up desnudo (naked) with durazno (peach) while interpreting liveAs you immerse yourself in a language, there will be a time where your use a phrase or saying or specific vocabulary only in that foreign language situation… so when you encounter that phrase or saying or vocab word in a different language, you have a brain fart and only remember how to say it in that one way. Saw a Spanglish T-shirt and understood what it said but not why it was funny. My sister informed me that every other line was Spanish. -- source link