It doesn’t matter if you’re bilingual, multilingual, or even polyglot we all have the same habit. There are many for sure, but these are the common ones we like to do.
Talk To Themselves
I’m sure you’ve done this at some point in your life, be it a language learner or not. It’s totally fine and no need to be ashamed of it.
I’ve been doing this for God knows how long and I’m perfectly normal.
I tend to talk to myself a lot in these situations:
- When preparing for presentations.
- When I’m about to be interviewed.
- When I’m about to do an English oral test.
- Whenever I feel like having a debate with someone about something but don’t have the confidence so I chose myself instead.
- When I’m super happy or mad, but I don’t want to show it to people… you get the idea.
Mix native language with other languages
Have you ever heard someone talk using 2 languages at once? At first, they talk in their native language and somewhere in the middle they change to English or whatever other languages they speak and then switch it again back and forth. I’m sure you have.
People that speak more than one language like to do this every single time whenever they have the chance. I don’t know yours, but this is pretty common in my country.
I’ve seen people do this quite a lot when they are being interviewed on local TV. I don’t know why they do that, but it annoys me, especially when they were asked in their native language and instead of replying it back in the same language they use English.
Makeup words and it makes no sense
If you’ve been learning a few languages you’ll notice there is/ are some proverbs/ sayings/ idioms/ expression that just doesn’t make sense when you translate them to other languages.
When bilingual people are in a situation where they need or want to use those and the right one just doesn’t come up, they end up mixing them… matar dos pajaros con una piedra?
Act like you understand Nothing but you do
Appearance can be deceiving. You won’t know one’s ability until you know them. It’s like the Korean TV show called I Can See Your Voice where the guest singer chooses who among the participants can sing and can’t sing. Usually, they get it right but most of the time it’s the other way around.
When you’re surrounded by bilingual, multilingual, or polyglots, I guess it’s easy to pretend like you don’t speak the language they speak. Why?
Well, the most common reason is so they can eavesdrop on them (yeah, some people like to do that). Or carefully listen whether they can really speak the language fluently and if not, you then smile secretly – Got ya!
Write social media status in foreign languages
I can barely understand it, so I don’t know if they are cursing someone in specific. I mean there’s no need to use cryptic status if you’re saying something good, right? Or maybe not.
I once read the status of one of my friends, which he wrote something sweet in Spanish – ¡Dios mio!
Teach your friend the language you’re learning
What’s more exciting than teaching your friend some foreign words if you’re passionate about languages, that is. When I told my friend I’m learning Spanish, the first thing she asked was what’s ‘I miss you’ in Spanish.
During college, a friend asked me how to greet back the teachers who are conducting the English oral test. I was so happy to share the knowledge I got from another friend of mine and the session went for more than 15 minutes.
If you know me and have been reading my posts, you know I like pronunciation a lot. When I hear my close friends talk in English and their pronunciation isn’t correct, that’s when I chime in.
I’m not trying to show off rather I want to help them improve and I don’t want them to embarrass themselves. It’s as simple as that!
Do you do all of the things mentioned above? Or perhaps some of it? Or maybe it’s not on the list? Share it with us below.
