Problems that arise when english is not your only language!

[BLEED REBELION!!!]

This could be placed in the whine section. But my gaol is not so much to complain but to start a disscussion so.....


My first language is officially called HCE Hawaiian Creol English. Which is basically a result of Hawaii being invaded and taken over by a bunch of english speakers who then brought in a buch of Phillipino/chinese/puerto rican/thai/etc people to work the sugar cane/pineapple feilds because there were not enough living Hawaiians.
HCE is called "pidgin" by native speakers. I never even knew that my language was officially called HCE till I came to mainland America.
Pidgin is mostly english with Hawiian grammar/sentace structure/and some Hawaiian/other vocab.
Speaking standard american english wasnt that hard for me. It was mostly the accent I had to fight. ANd now I can easily switch back and forth.

I have been learning Japanese (although I really am shamefully bad at it simly because I dont have enough time and am a lazy BASTARD.)

I've always spocken a minimal amount of spanish. I could supposedly speak it "very well" as a small child. I think lack of contact with my spanish speak side is the cause of my regression.

And for the last year I've been taking french. And at first french was really hard because I would always accidently turn it into spanish. And the teacher would be like "you are an idiot!!" But now I think I can keep the spanish out most of the time.

My new problem with frech is that its fucking with my already shitty english spelling skills. I accidently add vowels to the end of word where they dont belong. so that they will read like french. It happens and I wont realize till later.

I plan on being a linguist or something to do with learning a billion languages. Im pretty sure my kids will end up speaking some weird fusion language because I often times speak in this stupid ass jummble of languages and vacabulary and then the person will be like "wtf? I dont know what word X,Y, and Z mean". And I'll be like "oops... tha wasnt engish lol".


Does any one else notice or have problems like the ones i've described?

[Underwater Ophelia]

I think that's actually a pretty cool problem to have. I mean, yeah, as you've said, it presents problems, but it's very cool that you speak more than one language--and a very special one at that.

[Valerius]

You'll get used to it as you use them languages over the years. I used to mix up my native tongue with English a lot in the past, and it takes a conscious effort to sort out the two or three until you're doing it without even thinking. I speak a bit of Spanish with my gramps, and it's hard not to speak English sometimes.

[le_revenant]

Lucky you, being multi-lingual & all; even if not really fluent.
I'd love to learn French but there aren't any practical opportunities to try it out. Plus the local Alliance Francais bunch are pretty snooty to ya if you're not fluent!

Japanese would be cool, & since we get lots of Japanese tourists the opportunities to try it out are there. I just can't find anyone here who could put in the time so we could both learn it well.

[LaBelleDameSansMerci]

I've been entertaining the idea of learning Latin next year, but I'm thinking that continuing with German would probably be a better idea. English is my native language, and I know functional French (I was in French Immersion until grade 9 and lived right beside the border of Quebec), and I took German last fall. I kept inserting French into it in my head, but hardly ever English and not often out loud.

[BLEED REBELION!!!]

I cant wait till I'm fluent in all thwe languages I am currentlylearing.
They interfere (sp?) with eachother but I love them all the same. Frnch has got to be my least fave. Nothing is spelled like it sounds.


Valerius: What is your "native tounge?


I LOVE LANGUAGE SOOOO MUCH!! Its quite awesome. Although my english Vocabulary is by far the largest.

It bothers me that I dont know the Japanese word for Totalitarian or pedagogy etc. I want to learn all the "acedemic" wrods as well as the "common" ones.

I think that when I gradute I'm gonna go to this Hawaiian Language immersion school I heard about. A couple of months ago I found out that there is supossedly only 2000 fluent speakers of Traditional Hawaiian. Most of us just speak pidgin creol street slang etc. I think I might end up being a Hawaiian language/history teacher despite how much I laothe the average Highschool student.


I think one thing that makes me wan to learn so many other languages is because I hate to read translations. For example The Daodejing. I'm reading it. But I have to read translatiosn and I know they cant possably do the original justice.


I think I might take latin next year its offered at my new high school?

May I ask WTF is a declenchin (sp?) and how deos it work. All my llatin learning friends bitch and moan about them.

[Godslayer Jillian]

I don't see a problem with speaking more than one language.
I see HUGE problems with speaking only one language, on the other hand.
"They figured out a long time ago that it's much easier to control people when we're all watching the same TV shows, listening to the same radio stations, going to the same movies, looking at the same billboards, eating the same food, and speaking the same language."

[prophecyofdoom]

I could speak English and one other language just fine, but when I tried to add a third language in there everything got all muddled in my poor simple brain. Apparently I have two compartments in my mind, "English" and "Other".

[Valerius]

Bleed, my native tongue is Tagalog. It's the native tongue in the Philippines. I'm looking to expanding my arsenal to include French, but I haven't had the time to learn it. Hehehehe. I'm quite envious of my grandfather - he can speak 7 different dialects, on top of speaking fluent Spanish, English and Tagalog.

Proph, language is easy! I mean, some people are more gifted at learning than others, but nothing's impossible for everyone.

[Minyaliel]

I am a multilingual as well - I grew up in a bilingual family (german and norwegian) and then learned English when I got a bit older, so I'm fluent in all three languages. I also speak some French and have tried to learn Italian. I always keep mixing up Norwegian and German because, as a child, I'd speak both languages with my mother depending on who was listening to us, and sometimes combined the two as well without noticing. It's really annoying, because I sometimes catch myself in speaking German to my Norwegian friends and Norwegian to my relatives in Germany and then have to start all over again in the other language. (lol) This usually only happens when I'm distracted or stressed, but it is also at those times that I can't be having with too many explanations... In my every day language I tend to keep switching between and combining Norwegian and English, which I know sounds ridiculous. I just can't help it. And I often find myself thanking or greeting people in French. It's just odd. But I see all of this as a strength; I can usually communicate with people wherever I am. The only trouble it's been giving me is in learning Italian. I'm really, really good at pronouncing the language, but I keep mixing up the Italian words and the grammar with French. *sigh* At least I can understand the librettos in the operas I'm in more easily because Italian words often resemble or are similar to French.

[Delkaetre]

I pick up language quickly, but lose it quickly as well unless I'm actually using it regularly.
I used to have good Spanish, adequate French and German, and the beginnings of Russian and Japanese. My school's inability to offer uninterrupted lessons (because rugby's so much more important than academia at a grammar school, apparently) meant that I never even got to finish my Japanese and Russian courses. We weren't allowed to take three languages, so in order to take Spanish I had to drop German, so there went that one, and the structure of the curriculum meant I couldn't take two languages at GCSE if I was also going to to geology and Art.
So. No chances to practice them plus a really badly run system- Northern Ireland isn't the most sensible curriculum- meant I *still* only have English. I just remember random words and phrases from others. Been trying to pick up Swedish from people I talk to online, but that doesn't help much with pronunciation.

[honeythorn]

We only got the options of French Or German at school. I was horrendous at French. My accent was pretty good but I could not get the back of verbs and things like that for the life of me . So I chose German. I was better at that, got a grade B GCSE, NO idea how either.

I actually have no idea what a verb is. Or a pronoun, or an adjective. Any of that stuff. And that's in English! Not great considering I AM English. I had to attend one of the worst schools in the district unfortunately.

At least I did better than my brothers, who decided not to bother going to school half the time, and got about 1 GCSE between them. Compared to them I'm an academic triumph.

[Magila]

Speaking Russian & arabic fluently, English is not that good.

but never had problems with mixing stuff up, seems because those 3 don't sound like each other at all.

While French and Spanish evolve from Latin, so it's normal to mix things up most of the time.

[ThreeEyesOni]

I've picked up the bad tendency to mix in smatterings of French (and more recently Hebrew) in when I talk simply because the word fits better in my head. Most of the time it's ok, but one of these days I'll use it at the wrong time and get a funny look.

[AngelikDemonik]

Hmm...this really isn't a problem, but a lot of times I say "Yallah" (Arabic), which means "Hurry up", or I say "Wallah?", which essentially means "Are you serious?" or "Swear to God". Most of the people around me understand what these things mean, though, so it's not too much of a problem.

[killer_asian_Dax]

The thing you have to remember when learning French is that

A) The words won't often be spelt like they sound. At some point, the French just decided to keep the spelling as is because the words, when spoken "sounded pretty." (That was the honest to god explanation I've gotten from every single on of my French teachers and friends from France.)

and B) Whenever you think the word will be ended with an 'er' think again. It's most likely 're.'

Because I've always had a natural gift towards learning other languages, I've never had a terrible time learning them. The only one that's proven a bit trying so far is Russian. And that's mostly because I'm trying to learn it via the Rosetta Stone program as opposed to taking classes or immersion like I did for German, Japanese and French.

Unfortunately in High School we only had the option of French or Spanish. And my friend who lives in Orance County got the option of French, Spanish and Japanese. *jealous*

[blackwater1110]

Originally Posted by killer_asian_Dax

Because I've always had a natural gift towards learning other languages, I've never had a terrible time learning them. The only one that's proven a bit trying so far is Russian. And that's mostly because I'm trying to learn it via the Rosetta Stone program as opposed to taking classes or immersion like I did for German, Japanese and French.

I do pretty well learning new languages too, but as Delkaetre said, I'll lose them if I don't use them. After not using the beginning Japanese I learned a year ago, I can now only recognize the characters and remember really basic phrases.

How do you like the Rosetta Stone thing? I was considering trying it for French but you seem to think their method is not as efficient as traditional classes or saturating yourself with the language, although they boast a lot about its usage as a training program for government officials...

[killer_asian_Dax]

I have no doubt that Rosetta Stone is every bit as great as people say, but I learn quite differently from most adults. So in some cases, classrooms and immersion work better for me. And in other cases, using a tutoring program works better.

It really depends on what method of learning works best for you. I had an easier time teaching myself Russian and was progressing much faster. I seem to be tripping up everywhere with Rosetta Stone. I'm still plugging away at it since I want to give it an honest chance and since it's not exactly cheap either.

The thing I like most about the Rosetta Stone prog is that it comes with a headset that you plug into the computer and you use that to listen and work on your pronounciation.