Does your native language sometimes seem like a foreign language to you?

Question

The first language that I learned was Bangla, but I don't speak it anymore because I grew up in America, surrounded by English-speaking people...
Now, I mostly speak English, and sometimes it seems like a foreign language to me...
I took French, and that opened my eyes to the fact that I really suck at learning foreign languages, and I was able to look at English with "fresh eyes."
Sometimes my mind wanders, and it takes a few seconds for me to grasp the meaning of certain English words even though they're really easy...
The words that I grew up with suddenly seem alien...
Am I making sense?

Answer 1

Very much. I grew up speaking Arabic and Armenian and later French, i didn't get to learn English till i was 16. When i first got to the states, we used to go to the mall and it was strange hearing mostly people talking English everywhere. Now I'm used to it and sometimes when I'm talking in Arabic or Armenian it sounds to me like I'm talking Chinese so i stop and think the words through before speaking cause the words sound so funny and incorrect even though i know they aren't.

Answer 2

Sometimes when I'm deeply studying one of my other languages I lose track of what is English and what is not. So I'll speak like half English and half of a different language. I understand it, but it can confuse others. Or when I'm in other languages, sometimes little words in English make no sense. Wierd.
Is Bangla cool? Sounds like it would be cool.

Answer 3

actually you are making sense. the first language i learned was spanish. then when i was 8 years old we moved to america. there i learned English and im fluent in it. i havent been to Mexico in a long time and now when i tune in to watch a spanish-speaking program i struggle trying to understand it. it no longer is intelligible. sometimes when i come across an English word i dont understand it and also with Spanish. i guess i'll have to stick with Spanglish. lol

Answer 4

My native language is Irish. Sometimes when chatting to someone in English my brain thinking in Irish, and say something in my native language. Which makes no sense in English. I know what you mean about languages

Answer 5

yes, sometimes...
we each have our own idiosyncrasies,
mannerisms & style code of expressing
language, i sometimes think faster than
the words flow out, before i realize the
confusion in trying to articulate meaning,
the signature of expressing becomes
foreign so the frames of value for judgement
have an odd hierarchic mental landscape,
in a sudden there manifest
symbolic thought which belongs to poetry instead
of regular discourse which is a very different temporal
order of reference, hence the foreign aspect of
language diversity enters the game.
& yep, you make perfect sense ...

Answer 6

YEPPERS!!! I learned Russian as my first language, but I practiced for a looong time to sound normal, (Went from Russia to England), so then we moved to America, (UGH!), and I finally gave up on sounding normal...everything is foreign to me, I almost speak no Russian now!!

It makes me sad at how little Russian I speak....

Answer 7

Not really. Most widely spoken language in North America.

Answer 8

I am terrible at Spanish and French...and sometimes English does seem odd- mostly just words.

Answer 9

Yeah, this happens to me when I have too much to drink. My words are really slurred annnndddd I ggett to talkingg fuuuunnnn a funnn a funnnnnnnnyyy.

Tooooooo tooo bad I''''mmmm an aiirr aiir aiir aiir airliner pilot...

Answer 10

It seems a little foreign when I listen to teenagers talk. I used to be "cool", but now I don't know what the hell they're talking about half the time.