Two Languages? Too Much?

[ello]

I've been taking Spanish for 4 years and started studying over the summers between school, and half a year ago I started learning Mandarin Chinese. My question is, although the languages are totally different I still have trouble switching from Spanish to Chinese is their a way to switch my brain with more ease from Chinese to Spanish (and vice versa)?

Thank You

Gracias/(xiexie)

-Ello

[Mav]

I speak a little SPanish and am a Mandarin Chinese linguist.. I've been a Mandarin Chinese linguist for about 10 years, now.. and I still have the issue, sometimes. It's just a matter of practising. Make sure you're watching news casts in those languages and that you listen and understand.. Immersion is the best method. Just keep practising and talk with people as much as possible. It'll make the transitions between the two much easier.

[Pete]

Originally Posted by ello

....although the languages are totally different I still have trouble switching from Spanish to Chinese is their a way to switch my brain with more ease from Chinese to Spanish (and vice versa)?

Well, we all had gotten fairly good at Arabic over the years. When we had to go to West Africa we had to take a French class. I truely felt sorry for the teacher.

Anyway, about in the middle of the course one of the guys is struggling through a sentence. He completes it and we all understand and nod, then look at the teacher. She has a real odd look on her face and goes "What did you say?" It was only then that we realized he had switched to Arabic in the middle of the sentence.

If you're only good at one it tends to "pop out" when words fail you in the other.

Pete
With a working knowledge of American Redneck.

[Goggles Pizano]

I know the feeling Pete. I am fluent in English, spanglish, and ebonics often finding myself understood by all except my rookie!

[ello]

yeah, during Spanish class i was speaking about a product I had "created", yo dije..."este es nuestro producto, se llama hielo (night before i was studying radical characters and "ice" happened to stick in my head so was standing there thinking how to finish, but i couldn't because i kept saying "ni yao mai bing ying wei..." [you want to buy ice because...])so i just stopped and attempted to say "estoy hablar en chino, no puedo creer comó se dice esé palabra"

basically I need to just stop thinking in chinese while speaking spanish

-Oliver,
ello

[Mav]

Originally Posted by ello

yeah, during Spanish class i was speaking about a product I had "created", yo dije..."este es nuestro producto, se llama hielo (night before i was studying radical characters and "ice" happened to stick in my head so was standing there thinking how to finish, but i couldn't because i kept saying "ni yao mai bing ying wei..." [you want to buy ice because...])so i just stopped and attempted to say "estoy hablar en chino, no puedo creer comó se dice esé palabra"

basically I need to just stop thinking in chinese while speaking spanish

-Oliver,
ello

You aren't going to be able to help it, much, for a little while...

I'm primarily a Chinese linguist... but I hadn't practiced in a while and someone asked me "Shenme she(r) a?" and I said "nada". It's just going to happen. Keep practicising immersion in both languages, at the same time. It'll help you to be able to flip flop back and forth. Try speaking Greek and Chinese accidentally slips. Yeeeaaahhh that'll get you a few funny looks.

[ello]

I have since been conversing with my Chinese teacher (黑老师) and Spanish teach at the same time, it takes me a few seconds to switch between the two. Also now I am also taking Chinese at my high school learning Traditional Characters along with classes every Saturday for three hours, oh and my Girl friend came from 南京 (nan-jing) last year. So I'm getting a good amount of Chinese practice every week .

I haven't slipped up lately (past couple months) with Chinese and Spanish. 9 months of Chinese and 4 years of Spanish so far. I would like to know, what scores are needed to be considered "fluent" on the DLAB? And if anyone knows are the characters in Trad. or Simplified?

Thank you, 谢谢

Oliver (小乖）

[f50lrrp]

In 1970, I attended the MATA Senior NCO Course at Fort Bragg. Besides training us to be Advisors, the course included 24 weeks of Vietnamese (12 weeks at Bragg and 12 weeks at Biggs Army Airfield, El Paso, TX).

In those days, the majority of Senior NCOs had been stationed in Germany and had a working knowledge of German. When we were reciting our "dialogs" in the mornings of our Vietnamese course it was easy to insert a German verb or noun into a Vietnamese sentence. The odd thing was almost everyone in class understood what we were saying except for the native Vietnamese instructor.

When I arrived back in Vietnam, I continued to slip every once in a while and I would use German in a sentence with the indigenous people. I was amazed that they could understand until one day an ARVN Dai Ta explained that the local area had been a French Foreign Legion post and most of the Legionaires had been former Wermach soldiers.

[NotME]

As a linguist who speaks a whole bunch of languages, I've been in your same situation. Eventually, if you keep at it, it does get easier - if you can keep studying until you're really truly proficient (at any or all of your languages). If you don't do that, you'll always have that problem - at least for short periods of time when transitioning from one language to another. Good luck!

[ello]

Yeesh, I thought it would go away in a few years...

German and Vietnamese and i thought Spanish to Chinese was difficult .

Today at my internship I couldn't count in Spanish I was thinking Chinese numbers!! The woman I was translating for laughed at me...oh and taking phone calls in Spanish is harder than I thought I always use [tu] form and not [usted].



thanks

[ODA 226]

I speak Serbo-Croat and German. After being immersed in the Jugoslav culture for 12 years and having moved back to the States recently, I've found myself forgetting some words in ENGLISH!

LOL! Good question - my humble response!

I can speak a good deal of Serbian and Marshallese. I used to speak a lot of Spanish but have lost just about everything. I learned through total emersion - not a single text book or class with teachers. I'm actually worried about how I will perform in a classroom enviornment. I do look forward to it though. It will be an interesting challenge.

There are times out here that I will be speaking to someone and all of a sudden without me noticing I'll mix in Serbo. Same thing when I on the phone to Serbia - I'll mix in some Marshallese. I don't even attempt Spanish any more - no need to use it at all and I have not studied it. I'm even loosing some of my Serbo out here and have to use "metak" every now and then.

The more you use it the better you get of course. Something I've tried and think is fun is to register with sites like this and choose someone who is a native speaker of the language you want to speak and converse with them. Of course watch out for OPSEC and PERSEC, as I'm sure the "enemy" lurks on sites like this too.

[ello]

Roger That

Thanks for the link Gladan!

ello-