It gets worse when you know more than two languages, even moreso when they overlap. I've had numerous times when my brain freezes and goes "Was that the word for it in Italian... or Spanish...? Which one is it?" check "They're the same! FUCK!"
Yup... I grew up speaking English and Greek (dad was from Greece) and later studied German in high school and college. Now I'm learning Spanish. There have been numerous times where I've used a word from a different language while speaking another. Another common mistake of mine involves Spanish and Greek... There's a few false cognates... In particular, "aquí," pronounced "ah-KEE," meaning "here" in Spanish and "εκεί," pronounced "eh-KEE," meaning "there" in Greek. I often screw that up in interesting ways in both languages.
I’d just like to note that I learned the German equivalent to the English phrase “It’s all Greek to me” to be “Es ist mir Spanisch”, and your repertoire of languages makes me feel for the strain that must be on your brain all the time lol
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u/arzis_maxim Sep 02 '24
When it is your second language, you feel more self-conscious about it