Mind your multilingual manners!

[scraparcs]

For those of you who speak two or more languages, what discoveries have you made regarding when it is proper to speak what language? I know that generally when all parties speak one language in common it's probably most proper to speak the language common to all parties, but what about when you aren't thinking and accidentally code switch? Do you need to pay more attention to what language is being spoken? Or what do you do when you speak, for example, English and Swahili and you're talking to two friends, and one speaks almost solely English and the other almost solely Swahili?

Does this have any relevance to any of your lives?

 

[kevlite2020]

I'm not bilingual but I speak some Spanish, and I've found that people who speak spanish as a first language tend to really like it when I try to speak spanish more than english, even if I'm not perfect at how I speak it or if I have to say things in a really weird way. Maybe it's just the effort to communicate with them in a way that is more comfortable to them that makes them happy, but people tend to be a lot more patient with me when I try to speak spanish to them, even if I'm having a lot of trouble getting out what I want to say, or at least trying to speak spanish mixed into my english, rather then just speaking english and trying to talk slowly to get them to understand.

 

[MehTeh]

My multilingual friends, which seem to be most of them, either revert to english, or fill me in on the important bits of the conversation.

 

[ceh85]

For those of you who speak two or more languages, what discoveries have you made regarding when it is proper to speak what language? I know that generally when all parties speak one language in common it's probably most proper to speak the language common to all parties, but what about when you aren't thinking and accidentally code switch? Do you need to pay more attention to what language is being spoken? Or what do you do when you speak, for example, English and Swahili and you're talking to two friends, and one speaks almost solely English and the other almost solely Swahili?

Does this have any relevance to any of your lives?

I tend to go for whatever is easier for myself the other person, combined with whatever they'd prefer me to do. By which I mean, if someone wants to speak English to me and they are terrible it becomes soo laborious that I'll try to help them out a bit by speaking in their language(if I know it obv), but if their English is ok we'll probs either take turns or chop and change. I have a friend I was close to at one time who is Spanish and we used to revert to speaking our mother tongue and to each other for the sake of easily flowing conversation Also we both got listening practice that way lol.

The situation you mentioned sounds quite awkward, I would probs try to act as interpreter for both but it doesn't sound like the kind of thing that makes for stimulating conversation because you end up carrying it all on your own.

 

[scraparcs]

My multilingual friends, which seem to be most of them, either revert to english, or fill me in on the important bits of the conversation.

Is it important to you that they do that?

A lot of this stems from some experiences I have had where people speak multiple first languages but most people speak some English. At most places there was a fairly strong norm that if all parties speak English with a conversational level of fluency that parties should speak English to be inclusive. But I've found a tendency at work for parties to speak whatever language they feel like speaking at the time and the norm is that if you don't like it, start learning a new language. (Having invested the time and effort to learn a new language I'm actually a fan of this norm. ) However, we have a new manager who is used to the general norm of speaking English whenever all parties speak some English. So how do you work within both norms? It's not always easy.

I tend to go for whatever is easier for myself the other person, combined with whatever they'd prefer me to do. By which I mean, if someone wants to speak English to me and they are terrible it becomes soo laborious that I'll try to help them out a bit by speaking in their language(if I know it obv), but if their English is ok we'll probs either take turns or chop and change. I have a friend I was close to at one time who is Spanish and we used to revert to speaking our mother tongue and to each other for the sake of easily flowing conversation Also we both got listening practice that way lol.

The situation you mentioned sounds quite awkward, I would probs try to act as interpreter for both but it doesn't sound like the kind of thing that makes for stimulating conversation because you end up carrying it all on your own.

The situation I mentioned was actually funny, but it could definitely be very awkward. Thankfully it was just the lunchroom at work and they just laughed at my attempts to maintain two conversations in two languages at once.

I do sometimes have fun speaking alternate languages for practice. Gosh, how many languages do you speak by the way?

 

[Keri]

I'm not sure what the question was, but the guy I met recently (on vacation), he speaks three languages. Russian, Ukrainian and English. He would only speak to me in English unless I asked him to say something in Russian or Ukrainian. There were a lot of Ukrainian staff on the ship, and one girl didn't speak English very well, so I asked him to translate. It was awesome. I love listening to other languages.

 

[ceh85]

The situation I mentioned was actually funny, but it could definitely be very awkward. Thankfully it was just the lunchroom at work and they just laughed at my attempts to maintain two conversations in two languages at once.

I do sometimes have fun speaking alternate languages for practice. Gosh, how many languages do you speak by the way?

Oh yeah that sounds ok. I just remember being abroad and trying to make conversation and everyone being really serious about it. It was good practice but tiring haha.

Ooh yes I love just talking to myself in other langs! I only really speak Spanish and Italian with any fluency(and English obv!), and I studied those so they are kind of my skill base I always tell people I am qualified to communicate with others but that's my only skill Also that I can translate anything but can't necessarily tell you what it means. That is the best thing in the world for me though, to just communicate with people and to know I have it in my power to speak to millions more people than those who only speak one language. I have a list of other langs I want to learn too. It's an addiction!! What do you speak? I think I remember you using Spanish on the boards before, any others?