this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2025
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.
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That is a genuine new thought for me, I only speak one language but it never occurred to me that if you are fluent in two or more that they might start to merge in your head into a single language, forcing you to work to isolate one as you speak it. All languages are a mix of others but I can't imagine having to differentiate the root of each word before it is used to ensure its applicability.
It works like a switch in your head. You consciously flip the switch to whatever language you want to use, but then afterwards you don't really think about it. It can lead to situations where you forget to switch the language back to a common language before speaking to someone
If you're really fluent.
I lived in Germany for a few years after graduating college with several years of French study under my belt, and there was a point as I was learning German where I would genuinely struggle remembering the right word for things. I'd reach for the German word, and my brain would give me the French word.
Worse was returning to the US. There would be times when I'd be talking and want to say a common word, like "trash can" and I could not for the life of me remember how to say it in English. All I'd get was the German word. I mean, I spent the first 18 years of my life being mono-lingual, and three years in a foreign country and I started forgetting my native tongue.
But the strangest is that now -- after 20 years back in the US, when I can practically no longer speak German -- it still sometimes happens to me that I'll reach for a word and get the German one, and can't remember the English word.
I only speak German and have only ever communicated in any medium in that language so it is difficult for me to place myself in the situation of being unsure which language I had used to say something.
I have a doubt.
I had been fighting a valiant fight to not make that joke since I first replied to this post and sadly lost.
Something felt wrong about this comment but it took a while to figure out what. It's in English. I guess you meant you only communicate orally in German but it kinda confirms the original post.
Sorry, it's a stupid joke on the topic of the post.
I'm fully bilingual (learned both languages at the same time) and that is not my experience at all. For me it is 100% subconscious. I just automatically speak the appropriate language for the situation I'm in without thinking about it.
In fact if I try to consciously speak the "wrong" language for the situation I'm in it feels very weird and it takes a lot of effort to not mix up the pronunciation.
Dreaming/inner thoughts work the same way. The language is always automatic based on context.
The inner thought part is also the case for me. For example, when browsing lemmy, my thoughts go to English and revert back only when I read/talk my normal language.
It's fun sometimes. We'll talk and then stop "hey wait a minute, which language did you say that in?"
I suppose that is what fluency means, that it becomes native to the brain and used instinctively without conscious filtration. A lot of modes of thought become mixed at the point of fluency, at a certain level scientific problems can be difficult to define whether they are chemistry or biology or mathematics.