Speech When Bilingual

From personal experience: if they are fluent, no. Occasionally, they may want to make a point and throw in a particular word that has no exact translation. Poirot is indeed being a little extravagant, which makes for a fun character. Also, no matter how fluent, bilingual people will occasionally mess up preposition. *coughs*
Oh, a linguistic friend of mine claims that bilingual people will keep swearing and counting in one language only, the strongest one. That doesn't apply to me. I can swear equally fluently in all languages I know. Usually, it's the first thing I learn. Heck, might as well start with the important stuff.

It depends. I am Filipino, I'm fluent in both Filipino and English, like lots of other Filipinos, and codeswitching (or jumping from one language to another, like you've described) is ridiculously common. We call it Taglish, and it's just how people speak--especially around the developed cities. The English words sneak in, even though we've got a perfect Filipino equivalent because we tend to use whatever word comes into our head first.

Singaporeans are also notorious for their codeswitching, as are natives of Hong Kong. I loved hearing people talking to each other when I was in Singapore because Singlish was so cute to listen to!

I'd say yes, but it may depend on how you came to be bilingual. Older relatives on my mom's side who spoke both would often mix them (I thought taking Polish would be an easy A in college... WRONG-O. I'd never realized how much English had been mixed in).

The other thing is that some words are just passed down as never translated... the original language remains, or the original language had a way to say it that doesn't exist in the second language. Perfect example: basiloco. I'm not sure my grandparents ever used the English "basil," so my father called it basiloco, and I was probably in high school before I realized they meant basil. I still call it basiloco because it's the first word in my head when I see it, even though I've never spoken Sicilian or Italian.

I think it depends a lot on the person's view of listener expectations. If it's commonly done where they are, it may be easier to do it that way. I'm not fluent enough to say.

I tend to have French come up first randomly when speaking Spanish, etc., rather than English coming up in tough or slow spots. Unless I really just don't know the right word. If you don't know it, of course a different language comes to mind

I think the issue here may be the difference between "bilingual" and "fluent". They're not the same.

A bilingual person speaks both languages natively. They will only throw in words from another language to the extent that any other speaker of the first language would. I'd say that someone who has a "strongest language" to the extent that they only count in one language isn't actually bilingual at all.

A fluent person learned their second language later. They don't speak it natively. They are much more likely to have gaps in their vocabulary and might fill them with words from their native language - however, it tends to be in the opposite way to how it's done on TV in things like Poirot. It's a TV trope that a foreigner will use the easy, short words from their own language - probably because these are the ones that viewers will recognise. In practice it's more likely to be unusual technical terms. If they're fluent in the second language, the easy, short words will be ones they are comfortable and familiar with. They wouldn't need to replace them.

It will depend on the person, though. Even for something as basic as swearing. If I'm speaking in French, I swear in French. If I'm speaking English, I swear in English. But I know people who swear in multiple languages, apparently randomly. My brain doesn't work that way.

(Disclaimer: I'm not bilingual).

Most of the points I wanted to make have already been said but I figured I'd just add this - I have a friend who's bilingual in Finnish and English, and though he only speaks Finnish with family or occasionally if we prompt him to teach us swear words, he does still sing to himself in Finnish rather than English. Not sure if he's even aware he's doing it half the time.

From a truly bilingual viewpoint, I mix Chinese and English all the time, usually in one sentence because sometimes one language may offer a more succinct term than the other. For example, ' leather and leather-related materials' would just be 'pi ge' in Chinese, which covers all things leather. OTOH, in English you could have ' immortal' but in Chinese it would be ' bu si zhi sheng'.

Hope that helps some.

Take care,
Snitch.

Okay, I just realized that people in the Spanish-speaking community here d mix English and Spanish all the time, but I think it's because they all speak both languages, like Lils was saying. In my case, nobody speaks my second language, so mixing them up would be annoying to people. However, at home, we do mix up with the kids. I was just thinking strictly about Poirot, and frankly, I haven't met a real person that does that on purpose with people who don't speak his or her second language.

A lot of it might depend on who they're speaking to. If you've got someone who's bilingual, speaking to someone else bilingual in the same two tongues, they're a lot more likely to switch in and out of the two languages together because they can both follow the conversation.

I also see a tendency to have certain languages "tagged" for one subject or the other. I.e. highly technical computer jargon might be in one language whereas discussing their favorite novels (which they primarily read in another language for one reason or another) would be in a second language. So as the conversation shifts from one subject to another, the language shifts too.

the toerh way around mostly....

Tija said:

Hi again guys

I know the language topic has been brought up many times, but I couldn't find exactly what I'm looking for. So...

When a person is fluent in a couple of languages, is it common/natural/abnormal for that person to throw in words of their native tongue whilst speaking another?

For example, in the recent BBC Agatha Christie Poirot series featuring David Suchet, Poirot (Suchet) often uses French words in a sentence that would otherwise have been fully in English. At other times, he uses whole French phrases in place of English. I can only speak for Suchet's character, as I have yet to read any Poirot books (my whole Agatha Christie set was lost before I had a chance to read them and, sadly, never replaced), so I don't know if he also does so in the books.

So, is this something that a person would/does do and, if so, is it something commonly done by bilingual speakers?

Thanks very much,
Tija

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Over here in Sweden, seeing as our entire nation totals less that New York City even without the suburbs, we learn several other languages at school.

Typically, we use english or german words in swedish conversation rather than the other way around.

Poirot lived in a world where averyone who mattered spoke french, german, english, latin, and so on. the phrases that he uses are to augment his speech when he cannot find the english term, and to enhance when the french term is a better one.

But, he assumes that the listener understands him.

The same thing happens when I speak swedish to my friends. Occasionally there is a phrase in english that is better suited to what I am trying to say, especially when discussing computers.

What might happen when speaking english however is that if you don't know a word, you try your own native word and see if it sounds close enough to the listener to get him to provide the desired word:

-And then we saw a... kafé?
-Café, yes we have that word in english.

Of course occasionally this can be somewhat ambitious,
-Hello, do you have what we in Sweden call a skiftnyckel?

The above is unlikely to be very succesful unless the listener actually speks swedish.

And then of course we have the hilarious "Why yes, in my language we have a homonym to that word but it's meaning is completely different."

-"I met my husband when his sister and I had an... Affär*? together.."
-You had an affair with your husbands sister?
-Yes, me, my brother and his sister. We wanted to get my husband along as well but he thought is was too boring.

*Affär, pronounced as eng. Affair but means shop.

Most of what I would have said has already been mentioned, but I've noticed that I usually only switch languages (sometimes without even realizing it) when I'm talking to family. It feels natural for me, because everyone else in my family does it too. If I'm talking to someone outside my family, I'll stick to only one language, even if that person speaks both. The only time I'll switch languages with non-family (assuming they're fluent in both languages) is if I want to use a word or phrase that doesn't translate well.

Hope this helps!

My German wife is fluent in English and never uses German words in English conversation. Or vice versa.

skylark said:

I think the issue here may be the difference between "bilingual" and "fluent". They're not the same.

A bilingual person speaks both languages natively. They will only throw in words from another language to the extent that any other speaker of the first language would. I'd say that someone who has a "strongest language" to the extent that they only count in one language isn't actually bilingual at all.

A fluent person learned their second language later. They don't speak it natively. They are much more likely to have gaps in their vocabulary and might fill them with words from their native language - however, it tends to be in the opposite way to how it's done on TV in things like Poirot. It's a TV trope that a foreigner will use the easy, short words from their own language - probably because these are the ones that viewers will recognise. In practice it's more likely to be unusual technical terms. If they're fluent in the second language, the easy, short words will be ones they are comfortable and familiar with. They wouldn't need to replace them.

It will depend on the person, though. Even for something as basic as swearing. If I'm speaking in French, I swear in French. If I'm speaking English, I swear in English. But I know people who swear in multiple languages, apparently randomly. My brain doesn't work that way.

(Disclaimer: I'm not bilingual).

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I think this is an excellent point! If there is a 'later' language, it's completely different than having two or more languages coded in the brain from a very young age. It has to do with how the brain acquires language, and there are critical periods that can't be changed. One can make a very good effort, but it's still not the same.

Kitti said:

A lot of it might depend on who they're speaking to. If you've got someone who's bilingual, speaking to someone else bilingual in the same two tongues, they're a lot more likely to switch in and out of the two languages together because they can both follow the conversation.

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Just want to second this. When I'm speaking to somebody who only knows one language (or the other), I will speak completely in that language. If I'm speaking to somebody who knows both languages, I'll jump around with reckless abandon

Hey Tija,

Charles Berlitz, him of Language School fame, said that he always remembered his native tongue when he hit his thumb with a hammer.

I'm not exactly sure of the relevance myself, but I thought I'd share anyway.

As to your Poirot example, Hercules' lapses into French as a dramatic device to show er, internal turmoil, if you will - basically that he's worked out who and why the killer done it.

Regards

Whacko

Almost all my experience is yes. I used to sit next to a man who was fluent in French, English and Arabic. When speaking with other members of his family, he would switch back and forth between all three.

Currently, there are two people on my team who are fluent in both English and Spanish (Puerto Rican and Peruvian). When they converse with each other they switch back and forth in the middle of sentences.

It's distracting (and fascinating!) for me. I can tune out a conversation, but every time the language switches, I somehow tune back in and then have to tune out again. Even when switching from Arabic, which I don't understand, to French, which I also don't understand, I would have that attention flip. Very odd place, my brain.

whacko said:

Charles Berlitz, him of Language School fame, said that he always remembered his native tongue when he hit his thumb with a hammer.

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I'm Dutch, but I mostly use English swear words if I hit myself.

The Dutch are renowned for their ability to speak foreign languages and I find that, when I speak or write English, I think in English. Same with French and German. If someone is not fluent and has to translate in his head before speaking, s/he might intersperse their conversation with words in their mother tongue.

I don't speak a second language well enough, but one of my best friends is an Irish speaker, and she does tend to use some Irish words when speaking english, but more commonly she uses english words when speaking irish, mainly because there isn't an Irish equivelant for the word she wants to use.

This is pretty common in welsh as well, and I knew a Japanese girl once who explained that sometimes the translated words aren't 'right' in that they don't explain what the speaker is trying to say.

whacko said:

Charles Berlitz, him of Language School fame, said that he always remembered his native tongue when he hit his thumb with a hammer.

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The Nazis (sorry about the Godwin) had a theory that a woman would always use her native tongue when giving birth. That turned out not to be the case...

I'm fluent in German and grew up with some German speaking relatives so yes, I do mix German with English - mostly when I am directing my kids (because the same words were used to me as a child, I think) or when I'm really mad.

I also speak some Irish thanks to my Granny and there are times when a lot of words creep in....but then a lot of our English/American words are from the Irish. It's like the other day I said that there was water go lear in the backyard....or galore as a lot of non-Irish speakers say never knowing where the word came from.

I rarely insert words from another language, unless the word has no exact translation. Then I tend to give the various English translations so the person has an idea of what I'm saying and can pick the appropriate meaning.