Estoy curiosa, do you forget que lengua you are using?

Question

I'm just wondering if anyone else has the same problem I do and if they have any funny stories. For example, I went to the bank and told the teller, "Tengo una problema." She gave me the strangest look and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't understand what you said." Again, I repeated (and this time a little louder, because apparently she couldn't hear me), "Tengo una..." when, suddenly, I realized I was speaking in Spanish! Do other people do this, or am I just a bit more blonde than I care to admit?

• Nice Question! It has indeed happened to me. But did you mean "que lengua", "which tongue/language"? ;-) - chaparrito Nov 5, 2009
• Muchas gracias! I've just stared using the Spanish I learned almost 20 years ago recently and, well, we'll just say I don't remember everything as correctly as I wish I did. - aloshek Nov 5, 2009
• Haha- esto es muy graciosa!!!! - April-Sarah Nov 5, 2009
• This is great! You are obviously comfortable speaking Spanish. Wonderful! - Alicia-53 Nov 5, 2009
• I started to speak Spanish in a Thai restaurant. Kind of embarrassing... - 005457e3 Nov 9, 2009
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Answer 1

Sometimes just to tease I repeatedly speak to strangers in a language I know they don't speak until they get angry and snap--- "I don't speak Spanish!!!" or "I don't speak Chinese!!!"

• Eso es muy divertido! Tengo que intentar eso. - aloshek Nov 5, 2009
• yeah particularly when one says nihao (hello in chinese) to a Korean, they don't like that at all - 0068e2f4 Nov 5, 2009
• I do that to people that ask for money on the street :) - cheeseisyumm Nov 5, 2009

Answer 2

Hehe, well... I'm currently doing higher Spanish and German... Not good, I like Spanish a lot more, and so have been focusing a lot more on that. I try and work things out in my head just day to day things - sometimes a bit dodgy most recent (vivo en la calle - worst part is! I can't get it out of my head). Anyway, we were doing a practice speaking test in German, I walked into the room. Sat down and said "Hola, ¿Qué tal?"... I decided then it was not the best start. So said (continuing in Spanish) - "Lo siento mucho. Adios" and just walked out. The teacher came out and found me laughing.

• He leído tres veces y se reía cada uno de ellos! (Lo siento) - aloshek Nov 5, 2009
• jeje xD - Sammy16093 Nov 5, 2009

Answer 3

Yes, I do that on a regular basis with my students. I teach little ones (lst and 2nd grade) in French and almost every day, I will let slip a Spanish word when I am talking to them. They find it very entertaining and they want to know what the words mean. So, who knows, maybe they will learn a bit of Spanish from me?

• I homeschool my daughter and absent-mindedly speak Spanish. One day when I spoke Spanish to her, she responded appropriately! She understands a lot, but doesn't speak much - aloshek Nov 5, 2009

Answer 4

Hehe I have a funny story concerning this....

I was at my grandma's house and we were in the kitchen. I was looking at the counter, on which there was a box labeled "Pan"....

It took me 5 minutes to figure out that "pan" was in English, not Spanish...the whole time I was wondering why my grandma would be bread in boxes!

=D

Answer 5

Tienda del pastel de Dora

Answer 6

We are all more blonde than we care to admit!

I do understand how this happens. I sometimes try, while walking down the street, to translate what I am doing inside my head - just for practice. So I walk to a shop, telling myself "Voy al supermercado" and running through my shopping list in Spanish - so it would be very easy then to ask for the things in Spanish too.

Of course I don't, because there is no one to ask - it's all self service.

• I do that sometimes- translating my thoughts into spanish! Sometimes people give me weird looks though, and I realise it isn't all in my head... - EJClaire Nov 9, 2009

Answer 7

When I was in Argentina I didn't listen to American music but I heard it regularly on the streets. After about a year or so of living there, I no longer knew what "new" American music sounded like, so, sometimes I would sit there and listen to music for up to a minute before I could really decide if they were singing in English or Spanish, even after I heard them start singing.

• Holy cow, I've done that too - I'll play my mp3 on random and a song that I haven't heard for a while comes up and I can;t figure out why I don't understand the words, because I'm thinking in the opposite language! - Thanks for your story - aloshek Nov 6, 2009

Answer 8

For some reason, when I come across someone that doesn't speak English I just start talking in Spanish. Even if I know they don't speak Spanish. It must be my mind has categorized the two languages inside as: English and Other!

• ¡Entretenido! - aloshek Nov 9, 2009

Answer 9

One of my little ways to use espanol every day is to make up my shopping list in espano:

I am not that fluent in my espanol yet but I have been at the check out and asked how are you today and answer "Muy bien gracias. Y tu?" Where I live in a remote area of Vancouver Island, that sometimes brings some odd looks.

Answer 10

jajaj nice story, pero si lo hago muchoooooooooooo. it can be fairly annoying but at the same time muy gracioso!! :D

Answer 11

Es tan bueno saber que no estoy solo!

Answer 12

Oh gosh, I wouldn't dare speak Spanish on accident, then they might call me out on being a fool who knows about one tenth of the Spanish he should know!

• Don't do it by accident, do it on purpose so you can get some practice. - 0068e2f4 Nov 5, 2009

Answer 13

It's happened to me today. I was conducting English conversation at school and instead of saying "You're right" I replied: "¡Tienes razón!"

Answer 14

I learned French in high school (well, never learned it well enough to be fluent) and now sometimes those long forgotten French words pop up when I try to say the Spanish words.

• When I began "reviving" my Spanish skills, a lot of Italian and French would pop up and I had trouble telling the difference. (Except for my boyfriend typing "WHAT????" - aloshek Nov 6, 2009

Answer 15

I am sometimes blurt out Spanish phrases when I am speaking English as if I were native speaker of Spanish. For instance, when my computer crashed recently, I said this is driving me nuts and after that I said *me vuelve loca *I would assume that many bilingual people have trouble keeping the languages straight in their head, that why I hear a lot of mixing or code swtiching in lingustic jargon. If you're beginning think it the language, it probably means you have achieved some level of fluency.

• Oh, How I wish that I were fluent! jajaja! - aloshek Nov 6, 2009