Using Chinese in the wrong language

[LurvJenny]

Yeah thats also happened to me a few times. I'm Chinese, but I didn't grow up speaking Chinese, so you could say my first language is English, I then went on to learning Afrikaans (which is similar to Dutch). After that I started learning Chinese. On some occasions it takes me a few seconds to change to a different language.

I have a Maltese puppy (which I've trained him in Chinese), so he understands no(bu shing), eat (zhi fan), sit (zhwo xia), lie down (pa xia) etc etc. But when I have friends over, I'll accidentally say zhi fan instead of lets eat. >< hehe. I'm still trying to improve my Chinese, so I guess the only way to learn is to make mistakes. So you're not alone on this

[OneEye]

I have a Maltese puppy (which I've trained him in Chinese), so he understands no(bu shing), eat (zhi fan), sit (zhwo xia), lie down (pa xia) etc etc. But when I have friends over, I'll accidentally say zhi fan instead of lets eat. >< hehe. I'm still trying to improve my Chinese, so I guess the only way to learn is to make mistakes. So you're not alone on this

Let's start by working on our pinyin.

bù xíng

chī fàn

zuò xià

[LurvJenny]

LOL thanks OneEye. Yeah, I haven't learnt pinyin but I wanted to explain what I was talking about.

Thanks for helping me out

[edelweis]

This thread had me laughing out loud

Most of my colleagues now speak mangled French due to daily interaction with foreigners over the phone.

The year we started studying Spanish at middle school (two years after we started studying English) we learned to say "yo también" (me too). So the teacher said a sentence to each student and the student was supposed to reply "yo también". By the time it was my turn to answer my mind went totally blank and I said "me too", as we had learned two years earlier. Much hilarity in the schoolroom. Of course I was totally embarrassed

[Glenn]

I've had instances recently where I've gone to respond to someone and the first thing that comes to mind is Mandarin. I actually threw 何々 (naninani, Japanese for 什麼什麼) into a sentence and then immediately realized what I had done when I was speaking English to someone at work. Every now and then when I'm thinking in Japanese Mandarin will just pop in there. I've also had experiences where I've tried to say something in Spanish and ended up with Japanese case particles and word order (that used to happen in Mandarin at the beginning too, but it's working itself out with exposure).

I agree with abcdefg about the mental categorization. At least that's how it seems to work for me. There's one wall between English and everything else, and the everything else can get messy. Although usually it's the stronger/strongest language that dominates, but lately I'm starting to think it's the one I'm most focused on that dominates. That's how Mandarin can show up in Japanese (and Japanese and Mandarin in English, even).

I must say, though, that I'm a bit jealous -- I've never had a situation where I've just started speaking full sentences in a language other than the one the conversation was in without realizing it. Usually if I do it's intentional. Lots of times I've had words that I wanted to say that I've only had the Japanese for in English, and sometimes it's Japanese phrases that just fit the situation better than an English expression I'm aware of at the time. But I always realize it, pause, and try to think of the English. Unfortunately I'm not at a point where a language will just flow out of me. Maybe I'm around English too much for that to happen?

[Shi Tong]

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

Hahahaha..

Yep, same exact thing happens to me (and my wife)- After I had been to Taiwan for 3 months, when first learning Mandarin, I had had such an intensive learning regime that when a couple of months down the line I tried to think about how to speak French, I found it was totally lost. I tried to speak from 1-10 (which is probably the easiest thing) and I was thinking French all the time, but Mandarin was coming out.

Strangely enough, a while later, after I had adjusted a bit, my French came back.. my French is not that great, but I can say a few useful phrases.

It is odd how it was totally lost (like a link was broken), but once I repaired it a little bit (remembered a couple of words) the rest followed.

What makes me laugh nowadays is also thining about a sentence in French, getting to a point where I dont know how to say something and automatically switching to Mandarin as some kind of "default foreign".

I've also managed to slip in single Mandarin words by accident, but because of context, people already know the answer to the question I will ask.. so sometimes I might accidently say "are you going to eat your pingguo", and the answer comes back (from the English person) "no", and then they look at me sideways. ;)

My wife, whose second/ third language is Taiwanese (fu-jianhua), often finds herself speaking English, and she's done this to her grandfather a lot (who speaks no Mandarin).. she starts in Taiwanese and suddenly gets stuck.. starts chuntering on in English then gets angry with herself.

Totally normal, and actually quite funny sometimes! ;)