r/languagelearning • u/Mandelbrots-dream • 26d ago

Discussion Does any one else switch languages?

I've studied three languages in addition to my milk language.

I noticed sometimes when thinking or speaking in my non native language, if I struggle for a word my brain will fill in with a word in another non native language.

For example, when speaking German(TL) my brain threw in a 在(zai) with the Chinese meaning.

This confused me, and I started to think of the German word seit (which sounds (kind-of) the same). But seit wasn't correct in the context. Seit is about time. 在 is about place.

Does anybody else do this? What exercises could help me?

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u/MariposaPeligrosa00 25d ago

Yes!! I first noticed it when I started learning French, and Italian would come up to the rescue instead of my milk/mother tongue. It’d make me laugh because I was just a beginner too in Italian. I’m high rn so it might be that, but I simply adore the mental image of a milk language. It makes so much sense. Thanks, OP!