Answers
Sep 02, 2013 - 09:32 AM
That's an interesting post, MaryAnne. And, yes, I share your experience. Before a vacation to Italy a couple of years ago, I decided to study Fluenz Italian, and I was shocked to discover that, for the first several lessons, I was substituting words plucked from my decades old high school Spanish. But I was just as surprised when this phenomenon disappeared after Italian started taking root. And, oddly, now that I'm taking Spanish, Italian keeps wanting to elbow its way in.
Sep 03, 2013 - 09:16 AM
Thanks, that's interesting...I'm a neuroscientist, but I don't know anything about the language learning process. It would be interesting to know if any of the Fluenz people are familiar with this phenomenon. There is quite a bit of literature about language learning. I'll have to poke around and see what I can find.
Sep 07, 2013 - 06:47 PM
Same experience here. First language is English, second is Russian but I'm (re)-learning Spanish with Fluenz after having some back in high school. When I was traveling in Russia, I kept thinking of Spanish words for things when trying to recall the Russian. I probably confused a lot of people!
Sep 08, 2013 - 11:13 AM
i've definitely had this too. i studied french for about 8 years (and have since forgotten most of it), but often find myself relying on a french word when i am not sure how to say something in italian. the end result is fr-ital-ish.
Sep 09, 2013 - 07:31 AM
I studied French in high school (and Spanish, also, but I spent more years on French). I find myself pronouncing the Spanish words I'm learning as if they were French. I have no trouble avoiding an English accent when I get into my lessons - the problem is the words sometimes come out with a French accent instead of a Spanish one. For over a decade I didn't do anything with French - and now that I'm learning Spanish it's as if that part of my brain has been re-activated but it still has some old stuff sitting in it's cache.
Sep 09, 2013 - 02:45 PM
I'm experiencing it too! Glad it's not just me. Learning Spanish and have High School French trying to butt in. Same goes for the odd feeling of transfering back to English after speaking/thinking in Spanish for an hour or so. I can feel the cogs slowly change gears.
Sep 11, 2013 - 08:17 PM
My experience is a little different. Earlier Latin, German, where I first learned different sentence structure is coming back to help me with some of the Spanish sentence structure. I imagine if this was a persons first walk in a foreign language it would be much harder. I just finished level 1 and now on to level 2. I am really enjoying the whole experience. Of course, when I took German in college I couldn't sit in an easy chair with a glass of wine next to me!
Sep 14, 2013 - 11:50 AM
100% Normal Mary Anne-- for me it's French and Mandarin!!! Go figure.. French pops into my Mandarin from time to time. It's actually a very natural behavior for people learning new languages. It has to do with where these new languages are stored in your brain. Simply put, when you learn new languages it is all stored in the same compartment with separate "drawers" for each language, and since they are not well 'cemented" yet, some words just go in the wrong drawer at times. Your brain needs time to process the information. That's why the whole practice, practice, practice motto is crucial. The more you repeat things, that more they are "cemented" and your brains learns that those words go together. Make sense?