Question for people that learned a second, third, etc. language?

Question

I've been studying Spanish for about 5 years and am highly advanced. I am still hesitant to say I am fluent, but can reasonably keep up well with native speakers, and can read and write it and can switch back and forth between Spanish and English well. But every now and then when I'm speaking English to someone, I suddenly want to respond to them in Spanish. Or sometimes I count in Spanish, without thinking about it, even if its a bit slower. And, I've noticed that after functioning in Spanish for a while, it takes a few moments to adjust back to English.

Has anyone else experienced ths?

Answer 1

Yes, I have had similar experiences. English is my native language. I have noticed that going back and forth between the two languages gets a bit strange.

Answer 2

This is definitely what any person knowing several languages feels. I know three languages: English, Russian and Armenian and now when I started studying Spanish I get even more confused once in a while. Sometimes I want to speak Spanish all the time and practice. Other times I speak Armenian to my American friend and they are like "WHAT?". So you are not alone this happens a lot. But I like learning languages as far as I don't mix them all up.

Answer 3

Yes, me too.

I learned Spanish at home, then English at six years when I moved to California. I learned French in high school and German in the army. The Foreign Service taught me Romanian later on. I spoke English 99% of the time, but could speak the other languages when I needed to. Each time, it took me a while to "shift gears" well enough. Frequently, when I encountered a gap in my competence, another word would jump out of my mouth.

What changed for me was working for US Customs. I needed to speak all of the above, and I needed to switch from each one to another one. And now I can speak any of my languages without the previous hesitation and wrong language falling out.

Practice made things easier.

Answer 4

Yes, always. As you know by now, many words in one language cover a gap in vocabulary in the other. Quite often I will stumble on a word when speaking my native English because the feeling I had was better expressed in German... quite unnerving.

Answer 5

Yes, it means that you are mastering the language quite well. I also cannot remember if I had a conversation in English or Spanish....I just remember what we talked about!

Answer 6

yes i did all the time when i learned english after moving to miami from bogota colombia. That happens to some people but there is nothing wrong with it and it will stop happening in a while. Trust me and English was HARD 4 me to learn. jaja

Answer 7

I lived on Korea for several years, and now travel to China frequently. I find that when I get really tired or have a few too many drinks.... I might hit all three languages in a five word sentence. Drives people nuts ! (I find it amusing)

Answer 8

YES!!!
you are not alone! I am just learning Japanese, and already i do this. I find myself wanting to imediately respond to questions in Japanese instead of English. My brain thinks the Japanese word before the English one, and I have to think before I can decide what comes out of my mouth. lol
Also I find myself dreaming in Japanese sometimes.
I think it's normal.... I hope it's normal? lol

Just wanted to let you know your not alone. :)

Answer 9

yes .i also have such ``problems``.it happens especially when you learn a language similiar to your mother tongue.i studied Turkish and it is similar to my mother tongue ,we use many words in common.sometimes i can`t ``switch `` languages and can`t remember many words whether are in turkish or in my mother tongue.then i have learnt english,russian and chinese .now i really have some difficulties when speaking my mother tongue.

Answer 10

yesss