Using Chinese in the wrong language

[Scoobyqueen]

Have you ever experienced uttering the odd word in Chinese whilst you are speaking another language? It has happened to me on a few occasions, using for example "看" "我" or other words that may fit into the other language from a pronuncation point of view. The rest of the sentence is uttered in the other language and it is hardly noticed that this has occured. It has happened mostly with languages that I speak at a similar level to Chinese, ie not fluent. I am wondering if the brain hasnt quite categorised the languages as separate yet. It is of course also possible that it is dippy blonde thing :-)

[Daan]

Oh, yes, this happens all the time when I try to speak French, which I don't do that often these days. Just yesterday I caught myself saying duì instead of oui

[chrix]

yes, can confirm that. Years ago, when I was in Taiwan as an exchange student and tried to converse in Spanish one time, many of my conjunctions and discourse markers came out in Mandarin.

Again, when I flew from Indonesia to Taiwan last year, the same thing happened, again, conjunctions and discourse came out in Indonesian this time (my Mandarin had become quite rusty after six months in a remote location in Indonesia).

Other people have reported the same phenomenon, so you're definitely not alone. Often people say it happens with their least fluent languages, but I think it's more a function of language attrition. Given a high degree of attrition, it could even happen to your mother tongue. Scary thought, isn't it...

[liuzhou]

I think it's quite common. I often stick random words from random languages into whatever I'm talking.

A few says ago I was standing outside my office door when a Chinese colleague arrived. She looked at me and said "有key马?" She was totally unaware that she had used an English word.

My worst was on a brief visit back to London a few years ago. I was in Leicester Square area and Mrs Liuzhou was using a public call box to make a call. She noticed that the person in the next call box was having problems and speaking French.She asked me to help him. I used enough French to discover his problem then gave him detailed instructions on how to use the phone correctly - in Chinese, probably the local dialect at that! I had no idea that I had switched languages until I saw this utter confusion on the poor lad's face and the Mrs yelled, "You're talking Chinese , ********."

I'm sure that to this day the young guy tells his fellow Parisians, "Those crazy English! They think they can speak French, but actually it's some obscure dialect of Chinese!"

[chrix]

liuzhou, what your colleague did is called code-switching, and what Scoobyqueen was referring to is probably more something like interference. The former is usually intentional, whereas the latter undesirable.

[renzhe]

This happens to me more often if I'm in an environment where I have to switch languages very frequently (as in once a minute or more).

If I have a bit of time to adjust to a "main" language which is used predominately around me, it usually doesn't happen.

I use at least 4 languages daily (some of them actively, some of them through reading), so this is not always avoidable. I find that it improves once you get better at language-switching on the fly, so it is a skill that can be developed to an extent.

[Scoobyqueen]

Thanks for the contributions and interesting anecdotes. Liuzhou I am sure you are right about you having left a lasting impression.

My situation is like renzhes, I have several conversations almost simultaneous in several languages and it is probably to do with switching as renzhe pointed out. I often also turn around and speak the wrong language to someone.

[Daan]

Coming to think of it, last Saturday there was a party where I'd been speaking Dutch and English, but when I'd had a couple of glasses of wine, I suddenly forgot who to speak which language to. Made for a good night

[taylor04]

It's happened to me before, when I lived in China sometimes I'd get started and just blurt something out in English to a Chinese person when I could have used Chinese. When I got back to the states, sometimes I'd forget the English word and remember the Chinese word, or even use a Chinese word without thinking about it. After living in the states for 4 months, I don't have to many problems but sometimes still think to myself in Chinese

[Scoobyqueen]

How about if you just hear another language being spoken eg behind you and you immediatley start switching to that language. I find that weird. Also if you accidentally bump into someone do you say sorry, entschuldigung, pardon etc. This sort of automatic response I find weird as sometimes I am not even saying the right "sorry". It depends on things like how tired you are, what you spoke or listened to.

[SiMaKe]

Truly looking forward to the day when I have these problems with my Chinese.

[animal world]

Some time ago, i drove along a highway and noted a billboard at the approach of a small town. I caught the first word of the board's message: Women ....

"Gosh, that's cool; an ad in Chinese! But why settle for pinyin instead of Chinese characters?" i thought.

Only then did it dawn on me that the ad was in English and geared toward a female audience. This incident happened far, far away from any Chinatown.

[Sarevok]

Somewhat similar phenomenon... sometimes I hear some people talking (at a bus station for example) and catch some Chinese words being spoken. I instinctively turn around and see two guys speaking in Czech. Kind of weird that this happens to my mother tongue...

[doraemon]

There was this one time when a Chinese telemarketer called and asked me "你好, 请问你会讲国语吗?" I really didn't want to waste time talking to her due to unpleasant experiences in the past (There was this one telemarketer- I have an odd feeling it was the same one... who just went on and on for over 15 minutes. I thought it was impolite to just tell her to stop so I tried explaining that I was quite busy at the moment and hoping she would finish quickly, but she just didn't seem to get it). Anyway, I was meant to pretend that I couldn't speak Chinese and say something like "Sorry, I don't understand what you're saying", but since I was already in my Chinese mode, I accidently replied in Chinese "对不起, 我不会" and then just hung up. It actually took me a while before I realised I just spoke Chinese to her and I was just like . I'm sure she called a few more times but I just didn't answer.

[Meng Lelan]

This happened to me in Chinese and American sign language. After I came back from China where the Chinese sign language is completely different from American sign language, a deaf friend had me go sub for her math class at a school for the deaf. I kept using the number signs in Chinese then the kids kept correcting me with the American version with number signs.

[abcdefg]

My brain is a simple one and it's not the latest model. It has two compartments: one marked "Native Language" and one marked "Other." So it doesn't surprise me that the odds and ends in the "Other" compartment frequently get scrambled together.

Interesting comment above on Chinese sign language. I had wondered about that.

[Meng Lelan]

The deaf high schoolers in the math class really freaked out. And I didn't tell them where I had just come from the week prior.

[jbradfor]

abcdefg and I must have similar brains. When I started learning Chinese, my (limited) ability to speak Spanish vanished. Every time I tried to speak Spanish, Chinese came out. What is a bit weird is that my (also limited) ability to read and understand Spanish was not affected.

But closer to the OP's question, not, not really. I don't think this is due any special ability of mine, but rather more limited time speaking Chinese daily. I think that was easier as I would speak English to the Caucasions and Chinese to the Chinese, so I always had that to clue me.

Slightly related: returning to Taiwan from Hong Kong some years ago, I was worried the whole plane ride that immigration will ask me the questions in Chinese, and I say something stupid and get myself in trouble. So I head to immigration, and the person asks me in excellent English, "Where did you come from?". I was so ready to speak Chinese, and so relieved that I could speak English, that my mind went totally blank for about 3 seconds, during which for the life of me I couldn't remember where I just came from!

[atitarev]

I slipped into Chinese words a couple of times in the Japanese class. The reverse also happened. I often think I don't mix languages but I do...

[Lu]

When I started learning Chinese, my (limited) ability to speak Spanish vanished. Every time I tried to speak Spanish, Chinese came out. What is a bit weird is that my (also limited) ability to read and understand Spanish was not affected.

This happened to my French. Lost it within days of starting to learn Chinese. My German was not affected at all.

I speak the wrong language sometimes too, or throw in words.

Funniest mix-up conversation I can think of now was when an American friend I met in Taiwan and I were at a take-away place here in Holland, where the following trialogue took place:

Friend places his order: 'Chicken sweet sour.' Most of the dishes have English names.

'Rijst of noedels?' says the cashier.That sounds close enough to the English for friend to understand.

'Rice', he replies.

The cashier realizes he is foreign, and continues: 'Cooked or baked?'

Friend is now confused, didn't quite catch that, and turns to me.

'Chaofan or baifan', I translate, thinking of the Chinese before the English.

Friend turns back to the cashier and answers: 'Chaofan.'