Another variation: I am trying to speak English but German keeps coming out. In other words:
I am trying to learn a foreign language but
words from the other languages I have studied come to mind instead of the ones I want. Why is that?
Sometimes when we try to learn another
language we have the perception that other languages we have studied “get in
the way”. When my brother came to visit me for the first time in Italy, he complained
that French words he learned in High School were coming out, and there is a
good reason for that.
It is like your brain is saying: “Hmm we
have to get used to a new situation here, and my native language just isn’t
going to cut it” and it goes looking for
anything that is NOT your native language. It might be the French you learned
in High School, for example. If this happens to you, it is a good sign.
It means that your brain knows to suppress
your native language and, by the way, it is THIS skill that differentiates
bilingual speakers from monolinguals and is responsible for all the benefits of
foreign language that we read about: faster thinking, pushing off Alzheimers,
etc.
In my brother’s case, he was lucky because that
French probably helped him somewhat with his Italian because they are both
Romance languages. As a general rule, if you THINK you understand a word
because it reminds you of a word you learned when you were studying a different
language, 99% of the time you are going to
be right.
So don’t worry about your other language.
It may seem like an obstacle, but it is not. It can and will help you, and if
you are able to suppress your native language already, you are in great shape to
becoming a fluent speaker in your language of choice. Embrace it!
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