"I Don't Speak Spanish"

[ZealouslyStriving]

Funny article to brighten your day:

"I Don't Speak Spanish"

[The Nehor]

 

[Stargazer]

On 2/28/2024 at 4:06 PM, ZealouslyStriving said:

Funny article to brighten your day:

"I Don't Speak Spanish"

I don't speak Spanish either.

Well, I'm trying to learn how to speak it, though rather sloppily. But I can speak German. My late wife was German. We lived in the US and she only spoke German when talking on the phone with her sister. Even when we visited her sister (who lived in Cincinnati) they conversed mainly in English. But when she spoke with her other sister, who still lived in Germany, she spoke Germlish sometimes, and I'd have to remind her what the German word was she was giving in English. Really weird, if you think about it.

I would occasionally try to start a conversation with her in German and she would always reply in English. Rather than ask her about it, I just assumed she didn't like speaking German. Years went by, and I finally did ask her: "When I speak in German to you, why do you always answer in English?" She: "I do?" "Yes, why is that?" She: "I didn't know I did that!"

The thing was, her "code-switching" was entirely unconscious. She heard what I was saying, not how I was saying it! 

Perhaps that is what happened in the story?

My own code-switching can be quite automatic. I was out shopping the other day (I live in the UK), and overheard someone speaking German to another person. Immediately my brain switched over to German, and my internal conversation changed to German. And sometimes I cannot remember the English word for something, but the German is right there front and center. 

It's all weird.