Tag: hashtag bilingual problems

Kevin slips into French all the time on accident Aaron keeps accidentally using the German pronunciation of the months. He also has to take a sec to remember to respond in English. Andrew forgets that not everyone speaks the languages he does and says things to people in fluent German forgetting they don’t speak German. Neil slips into his accents a lot on accident.

beingsentient:

whatmack:

I LOVE! This!

For the languages it’s not so much “haha I forgot to switch back” because from what I’ve read that doesn’t really happen, it’s like you’ve said– they’re thinking in a language, or something makes sense in one language more than another….or the forget a word in English and Kevin’s like “the…la bibliothèque. La bibliothèque!!! The place!!! 図書館!! La bibliothèque!

And accents are a weird thing bc they stick around YEAH LIKE THAT at least in my experience??? I always get accent hangover. 

Also consider: Aaron and Andrew learned German from an American high school + Nicky’s conversations so they’ve probably got some…unique ways of pronouncing and phrasing things. Erik has to bite his tongue to keep from laughing at them, they’re trying to be so angry and intimidating but their accents are adorable

addition bc i grew up in a bilingual household and i am also bilingual:

andrew’s squad constantly walks into practice and says hello in a different language. sometimes neil and kevin forget that not everyone can understand french so they’ll turn to andrew while they’re arguing and he’s just like ??? neil wakes up and thinks in a different language on his run and then greets matt in it, who drops his coffee every time neil reveals ANOTHER language he speaks.

when neil and andrew start learning russian, they speak it around others just to fuck with them, but eventually they just use it interspersed with english and their teams are just. very confused.

BONUS: one time both neil AND kevin forget how to say a word in english so they text jean who doesn’t respond, and then halfway through practice kevin shouts out “GRAPEFRUIT!”, which makes neil scream/groan in sudden realization, and the freshman scream because they’re suddenly worried that perhaps KEVIN DAY has become unhinged. nicky tries to learn french, but all the articles are screwing with him, and after saying “im horny to see the prostitute” (je suis excité pour voir fille) he gives up.

artykyn:

prideling:

gunvolt:

im going to have a stroke

Instead try…

Person A: You know… the thing
Person B: The “thing”?
Person A: Yeah, the thing with the little-! *mutters under their breath* Como es que se llama esa mierda… THE FISHING ROD

As someone with multiple bilingual friends where English is not the first language, may I present to you a list of actual incidents I have witnessed:

  • Forgot a word in Spanish, while speaking Spanish to me, but remembered it in English. Became weirdly quiet as they seemed to lose their entire sense of identity.
  • Used a literal translation of a Russian idiomatic expression while speaking English. He actually does this quite regularly, because he somehow genuinely forgets which idioms belong to which language. It usually takes a minute of everyone staring at him in confused silence before he says “….Ah….. that must be a Russian one then….”
  • Had to count backwards for something. Could not count backwards in English. Counted backwards in French under her breath until she got to the number she needed, and then translated it into English.
  • Meant to inform her (French) parents that bread in America is baked with a lot of preservatives. Her brain was still halfway in English Mode so she used the word “préservatifes.” Ended up shocking her parents with the knowledge that apparently, bread in America is full of condoms.
  • Defined a slang term for me……. with another slang term. In the same language. Which I do not speak.
  • Was talking to both me and his mother in English when his mother had to revert to Russian to ask him a question about a word. He said “I don’t know” and turned to me and asked “Is there an English equivalent for Нумизматический?” and it took him a solid minute to realize there was no way I would be able to answer that. Meanwhile his mom quietly chuckled behind his back.
  • Said an expression in English but with Spanish grammar, which turned “How stressful!” into “What stressing!”

Bilingual characters are great but if you’re going to use a linguistic blunder, you have to really understand what they actually blunder over. And it’s usually 10x funnier than “Ooops it’s hard to switch back.”