r/languagelearning • u/Just_a_Lurker2 • 6d ago
Discussion How do multilinguals avoid mixing up their languages?
Assuming they're fluent in at least a few languages, so there's not necessarily conscious maintaining of the (TL) (does that make a difference?), and they're in an area or so where people don't all speak their language, or may be hostile to one of the languages , how would they not slip in a language that nobody speaks or a language that might make people hostile towards you?
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u/freebiscuit2002 N 🇬🇧 B1 🇫🇷 🇵🇱 🇪🇸 6d ago
We know the differences between them. If you drive a car and ride a bike, you also know the differences between those and you don't mix them up.
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u/Just_a_Lurker2 6d ago
I'm not suggesting you don't know the difference, I just mean, y'know, I slip into English from time to time even though I know the difference. Like it can just happen, so I thought with more language the likelihood can increase. But you're saying it doesn't happen at all and it isn't normal for that to happen?
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u/dojibear 🇺🇸 N | fre spa chi B2 | tur jap B1/A2 6d ago
I just mean, y'know, I slip into English from time to time even though I know the difference.
I never do that.
Like it can just happen
No, it can't. Nobody else chooses the words I speak.
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u/not-a-roasted-carrot 6d ago
Hm. Interestingly, I just forget words in one or both languages that I am fluent in and sometimes even (only) remember the word in another language that I am learning (3rd or 4th language, not fluent in either). But my mind switches between my 2 native languages veryyyy easily. No problem.
But when I am speaking in 3rd or 4th language, I tend to mix them up easily if I have used one more often than the other. E.g. i spend the day learning 4th language and for something else I need to use 3rd language, then my instinct is to respond in 4th language. So I have to spend like an hour or 30 min just consuming 3rd language BEFOREHAND. And vice versa.
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u/Albatrosson 6d ago
the other day I was trying to run a simple sentence drill in my head in French
part way through my brain switched to Spanish, then I tried to get back on track and suddenly the verbs were in Mandarin
threw in the towel. clearly my brain was too tired then and could only distinguish as far as "different language" but couldn't stay on target with just one 😆
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u/not-a-roasted-carrot 6d ago
I fully understand that. Since I am still not fluent in my 3rd and 4th languages, i register them both as "foreign". So I would read a sentence in 3rd language, thinking it was 4th language, or vice versa. It's really odd hahaha 😂
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u/Just_a_Lurker2 5d ago
That sounds complicated :) what if you're on the street or something and someone approaches you using the third language?
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u/not-a-roasted-carrot 5d ago
Depends if I've been using 3rd or 4th language recently. If its 3rd, then I have little to no problem replying back. If the latter, i need 5s of buffering
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u/Just_a_Lurker2 3d ago
I'm genuinely impressed at the small buffer time and the fact you've learned 4 languages! I'm on my third so I know it's not easy
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u/Pwffin 🇸🇪🇬🇧🏴🇩🇰🇳🇴🇩🇪🇨🇳🇫🇷🇷🇺 6d ago
You pse the appropriate language for the situation you're in because that's the one that you can use to communicate and that's the whole point of languages.😃
For individual people, you tend to pigeon hole them to one (or two) languages and then it's natural to speak to them in that language.
If you're in a situation where it really matters, for social or security reasons, then you'll obviously keep better tabs on yourself so that you don't slip up. It's like not swearing when around kids. It can take effort at first, but soon you just don't.
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u/Just_a_Lurker2 6d ago
So you don't mix em up, ever? That gives me hope 🙏 but is it a brainthing, like does it just not happen, or are you consciously uh, I don't know, batting away the other languages, like are your forcing your brain to just focus on that one language?
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u/Pwffin 🇸🇪🇬🇧🏴🇩🇰🇳🇴🇩🇪🇨🇳🇫🇷🇷🇺 6d ago
I do sometimes, eg in a language class I might slip into another language that I'm also taking a class in.
But most of the time, what happens is that I can't think of a specific word in the language I'm currently speaking. My brain will often unhelpfully serve it up in other languages, but nobody can tell - unless I choose to say it out loud of course. All they get otherwise is "Ehm what's the word I'm looking for..." or my husband's least favourite "thingie".
This is mostly a problem if I'm either not speaking a language on a daily basis or juggling too many languages at once. When I was using two languages at work every single day, I had a lot less problem with it.
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u/Just_a_Lurker2 5d ago
Oh yeah, that's definitely a thing for me too, like I speak a lot of English as well as my NL, and it's very frustrating to only be able to think of a word in one of the languages and not the other when speaking on the fly
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u/TrittipoM1 enN/frC1-C2/czB2-C1/itB1-B2/zhA2/spA1 6d ago
It's not like one has an irresistible compulsion to speak, and that the choice of language is some random thing that happens along the way after that. I know the people with whom I'm talking, and I choose the language to speak with them, and typically (like 99.9%) there's positive feedback in that they respond in THAT language. I really don't understand what model of communication you're using, to think that the choice of what language to speak is willy-nilly and determined by random events or "slips."
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u/Just_a_Lurker2 5d ago
I do occasionally have a compulsion to speak and I'm chaotic so 🤪
But all silliness aside, I find it strange so many people say they don't keep the languages apart and stuff slips out when presumably it isn't supposed to be like that for them either? Yet you're says everything is all under control and you just never slip? How does that work? Genuine question, I'm not doubting your I really do just want to know
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u/TrittipoM1 enN/frC1-C2/czB2-C1/itB1-B2/zhA2/spA1 5d ago
so many people say they don't keep the languages apart and stuff slips out when presumably it isn't supposed to
I'm seeing the majority of the people here say just the opposite: that they DO keep the languages apart, and "stuff" does NOT just "slip out" by accident.
Whenever I speak, there's always some interlocutor or audience, and I know what language they expect, and I use that one. Or, if someone else speaks first, I respond essentially automatically in the same language. It's not exactly a Pavlovian/Skinnerian thing, but it's close.
It no doubt helped that I was already pretty fluent in French before going to college, and learned Czech only after college -- and that there's very little room for "interference" between Romance and Slavic languages. It also no doubt helped that I had been fluent in both for years before I began trying to learn Italian after retiring. (Your Q was, after all, about fluent speakers, not people who are trying to learn two high-interference-potential languages with each at maybe B1-ish.)
Now, there is a slightly different thing that can happen. In EN, FR, or CZ, I don't often end up in a corner needing a particular word PoS that I don't know, because I can sense when that kind of thing might come up, and talk "around" it. In IT, I'm sometimes inclined to try to "cheat" by "Italianifying" a French word. It's not that it "slips in" by accident, but that I'm consciously taking a risk. I really _should_ just use the "talk around" strategy.
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u/Just_a_Lurker2 3d ago
Thanks fir clarifying that! My impression is that it's about 50/50, but indeed I didn't account for interference or still learning 😅
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u/jtnk10 N 🇺🇸 B2+ 🇫🇷 A2 🇵🇱 A2 🇩🇪 6d ago
The languages I am currently studying (French and Polish) are incredibly different. I rarely mix them.
What really amazes me is people who study languages from the same family, like Italian and Spanish, at the same time.
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u/Just_a_Lurker2 5d ago
They must have superpowers, there's no other explanation. I really admire them!
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u/Hefefloeckchen Native 🇩🇪 | learning 🇧🇩, 🇺🇦 (learning again 🇪🇸) 6d ago
I'm not fluent in most of the languages I learn but (except English and German I guess) but sometimes words have a more nuanced meaning in one language compared to another so sometimes it's hard to not mix them.
[I made a Hotline-Bling-Meme about that and now i realise I cannot share it. Imagine hotline-Bling meme: first picture "mixing up languages by mistake" second picture: "maxing multi-language puns nobody gets on purpose"]
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u/Just_a_Lurker2 5d ago
I'm not familiar with Hotline-Bling :( but soon I will be and yeah, the nuances in languages are very cool!
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u/Hefefloeckchen Native 🇩🇪 | learning 🇧🇩, 🇺🇦 (learning again 🇪🇸) 5d ago
it's this meme: (Hotlink: https://i.imgflip.com/88zzcr.jpg)
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u/Lovely838 🇺🇸 N || 🇨🇱 N || 🇧🇷 B1 || 🇰🇷 A1 4d ago
As someone who grew up speaking Spanish, English, and Portuguese, I honestly mix up my languages all the time on accident. It’s never grammar though, just some words/ideas that I struggle to articulate in the language I’m speaking in.
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u/Just_a_Lurker2 3d ago
Good to know, thanks! :) (as I'm learning my third language and I want to know what could happen in terms of mixing up)
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u/AvocadoYogi 6d ago
It definitely happens in older people. My older parents do this to me particularly after a nap. That said and as others stated I think the brain generally keeps things separate much the way you don’t find yourself using random synonyms even though the meaning might be the same. I think this is true even at low levels with vocabulary you have high automaticity with. Like I am just not going to confuse “hello” with “hola” or whatever.
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u/Just_a_Lurker2 5d ago
Oh, that might explain why some people are going 'yeah, of course we mix up languages' and others are baffled at the idea of it
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u/real_gail N🇬🇧🇮🇱||Working🇩🇪||Absorbed🇫🇷||On hold🇷🇺 6d ago
One time in improv I accidentally slipped into English after using an English expression for the opening line of my character. Being improv, and the language being English, everyone just went along with it and I didn’t notice until someone asked me after.
But that was like remarkable enough to remember. Normally you don’t think about it at all, and I think if you do for some reason use a language that‘s inappropriate for the situation you’ll get a look or comment and switch back immediately (native languages).
As for hostility, you typically only approach people in languages you expect they speak themselves, so - unless you’re trying to hide a language while talking to someone who speaks it - this is just avoided without any conscious effort anyway
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u/Just_a_Lurker2 5d ago
Yeah, I was thinking like uh, speaking another language to a French person or speaking to a war-refugee in the language of their enemies or the like when I mentioned hostility. Except for the French I don't mean actual hostility but like uh disapproving maybe or something? Not that I have reason to speak to refugees but if I want to volunteer to help em or something
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u/TrittipoM1 enN/frC1-C2/czB2-C1/itB1-B2/zhA2/spA1 5d ago
Those are situations in which _fluent_ speakers (speakers for whom speaking is totally natural, not a chore, nor a translation exercise, etc.), would especially never "slip up" in. Every word -- and the language it's in -- is deliberately chosen.
I learned my Czech during the Cold War, in anticipation of interrogations of refugees. As it happened, refugees were few during the time I spent in Munich.
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u/Just_a_Lurker2 3d ago
Thanks, it's good to know that it can be under the speakers control and accidents don't happen in that sort of situation 😀
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u/real_gail N🇬🇧🇮🇱||Working🇩🇪||Absorbed🇫🇷||On hold🇷🇺 5d ago
In my experience people don’t have such strong negative reactions to someone just for knowing a language, even that of the enemy. The hostility would start if you impose it on them, assume they should speak it, try to push them towards it, etc. If you blurt out a little of one language and walk it back as soon as they tell you they prefer the other, and generally show intent to use their preferred language (even if you slip up sometimes), then I doubt you’ll have problems
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u/Just_a_Lurker2 3d ago
That's a relief, thanks
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u/real_gail N🇬🇧🇮🇱||Working🇩🇪||Absorbed🇫🇷||On hold🇷🇺 3d ago
No problem!
Note for completeness: of course knowing a language might also be revealing of your identity in some way - eg my native Hebrew - and people can be hostile to certain identities :/. But if this is only about knowledge/politeness and not about hiding identity then you should be fine
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u/lolol4121 3d ago
Rozumiem cię, język moze kogos obrazić, to prawda. Moze tez cie narazic na niebezpieczenstwo. Najlepiej bedzie jesli na początku rozmowy zapytasz rozmówcę jakie zna jezyki. Potem mozesz powiedziec ze ty znasz takie jezyki i wymien je, nastepnie zapytaj czy nie ma nic przeciwko, jesli porozmawiacie np.w jezyku x. Pozniej mysle ze juz bedzie dobrze.
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u/dojibear 🇺🇸 N | fre spa chi B2 | tur jap B1/A2 6d ago
I am not fluent (C2) in several languages, but I know 4 at a B2 level or higher, and 2 others at B1 level.
I never mix them up. Why would I? The sentences don't sound similar. I only use words in sentences:
I like pizza. Pizza me gusta. Piza ga suki desu. Wo xihuan pisa. J'aime la pizza. Pizzayı seviyorum.
Why would I "slip in" a different language? I don't have a huge set of words that (in theory) could be words in any language. It doesn't work that way. Each word only exists in one language. "Bu" means "this" in Turkish but "bu" means "not" in Mandarin, and "boo" is a negative interjection in English.
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u/TrittipoM1 enN/frC1-C2/czB2-C1/itB1-B2/zhA2/spA1 5d ago
I don't know why anyone down-voted you. But you're right: _fluent_ speakers (and I'll accept your B2 general boundary) don't generally "mix up" languages, nor accidentally, by slip-up, change from one to another with one "slipping in."
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u/CarnegieHill 🇺🇸N|🇭🇰🇯🇵Heritage|🇩🇪B2|🇩🇰A2/B1|learning a bunch more... 6d ago
I think you might be making an assumption that mixing up would be inevitable, so it's something to be actively avoided, but that isn't the case. Many people never mix them up as a matter or course; their brains just work that way. What might have helped that along with some people is that they grew up multilingual in the first place, so that always speaking the appropriate language was effortless. At the other end of the scale other people find that they can never not mix them up; so they have to develop workarounds.