My brain really only has enough space for two languages: English and "other".
Just a little while ago, I was out in the front yard, doing yardwork, when an evil neighborhood leaflet distributor came walking up the street, leaving pamphlets on peoples' porches for our neighborhood realtor. Since I was in front of the house, he did me the courtesy of asking -- in Spanish (why? because it was his only language? because I was doing yardwork?) -- whether or not I wanted paper junk left on my steps.
My brain heard "foreign language", so I answered using my best foreign language: "Nein, danke!"
Posted by Kevin at June 18, 2005 03:10 PMHehe. I know exactly what you mean. I've been trying to learn Spanish for years now (which is a mere necessity these days if you live in South Florida). But I just can't do it. Well, I can can order food in Spanish so at least I won't be starving... ;)
Our brains are weird. I moved four years ago to Germany after spending 25+ years in California, with workable Spanish. I now speak OK German. But when I go back to the States, and go to a Mexican Restaurant, ONLY German comes out of my mouth, as I know I need to use a foreign language, but I now know only one.
The same thing happened to me in Scotland last month. I heard people speaking Scottish (i.e. English with a Scottish accent), and automatically, I was guten Tagging.
Even worse, we had a chinese American visitor at our office in Germany. Strong Chinese accent. I spoke German, to the amusement of my German colleagues.
Our brains are weird. I moved four years ago to Germany after spending 25+ years in California, with workable Spanish. I now speak OK German. But when I go back to the States, and go to a Mexican Restaurant, ONLY German comes out of my mouth, as I know I need to use a foreign language, but I now know only one.
The same thing happened to me in Scotland last month. I heard people speaking Scottish (i.e. English with a Scottish accent), and automatically, I was guten Tagging.
Even worse, we had a chinese American visitor at our office in Germany. Strong Chinese accent. I spoke German to her (she understood nothing), to the amusement of my German colleagues.