Re: English and its influence on other languages (was: Re: Aboutlinguistic (in)tolerance)

As I am a monolingual speaker, my brain has one "slot" in it for "foreign language."
So that while I was studying Welsh intensively, in Wales, I couldn't remember a
word of Spanish; if I tried to speak Spanish I would put "yn"s in front of adjectives.

Then, when I went to Switzerland, and worked in Geneva for a couple of years,
and was immersed  in French, I couldn't remember a word of Welsh,
much less Spanish.  When I tried to think of Welsh, French words would dart out
and impose themselves before my vision of the Welsh word.  Now that I'm away
from all exchanges in foreign languages, I can't remember any of them. I wonder
what it would be like to grow up speaking two languages.

Sally


> On Wed, 31 Mar 1999, Carlos Thompson wrote:
>
> > I'f found myself switching language like changing enviroments in my mind, when I'm
> > into the Englsih enviroment I forget my active Spanish.
>
> > I wonder if anybody has been in this conjuncture before.