Who has the dunce hat? Quien lleva las orejas de burro?
Whoever you may be, please make room for me in the dunce corner!
I think I am becoming incoherent in both Spanish and English! In the past 24 hours I have heard myself say: "The coffee pot overflew", "I have a remembory of that", and "the total aniquilation of the whale population".
If I weren't returning to the US (where it is presumed that I have a command of my native tongue) I would find this amusing.
Have any of you had this sort of experience?
Do I have to be put out to pasture?
16 Answers
I believe I have what you're looking for
[1]: [1]: 
Hmm. You're 3 days older than I am. Are you sure that you haven't been put out to pasture already and just haven't realized it yet.
It's an old grey mare in case you miss the allusion.
You can't have the dunce hat.
It belongs to me 
And the comfy armchair in the corner is mine too - but you can use it when Heidita lets me out.
No, ma'am, I don't think you need to be put out to pasture quite yet. I think that brains that are trying to carry more than one language sometimes overload. I don't have any great examples of my capacity to forget how to speak English but I do remember a Thanksgiving dinnner w/my parents who only speak English and a friend who only spoke Spanish. I was interpreting and suddenly found myself talking to my parents in Spanish as if they knew what I was saying and being completely unaware that I was doing it until my dad looked at me oddly and said, "Do you know your speaking Spanish?" 
I thought "THe coffee pot overflew" was a metaphorical twist.
MG, usted me hiso sonreír. Me gusta especialmente, "total aniquilation." Lo que es gracioso es que yo no necesité a un traductor. Tal vez adquirido esta habilidad después de cumplir 60 años. Por favor, guarda un lugar para mí en el pasto. Mientras tanto, creo que voy a consequir aniquilated con otro vaso de vino tinto.
Don't worry about it Mountaingirl. It's when everyone is telling you that you are using strange words and you believe none of them, that's when it may be pasture (past your?) time. 
OK, Thanks for the encouragement!!!
I will take my pocked English and cross the border on Thursday.
Hopefully the nightmare stories about not being able to visit the washroom during the flight (gasp!!) and not being able to read a book or have anything in one's lap during the flight (seems like a Seinfeld episode - David Putty on the plane, staring stight ahead) are greatly exaggerated.
Mountaigirl! I honestly thought it was just me. It seems everyone I speak to misunderstands everything I say...I can not speak Spanish AND I am loosing English. So what am I
nolingula?? At least I can still sort of understand English, so I can just knod.
Look at the bright side, Mountaingirl, you could have been responsible for posting a sign like this one in a place of business.
What a funny thread, thanks to Billy I did not miss it!!
I am well known for sending friends to the dunce corner, mind you , emphasis on friends!
Even though, meto la pata con frecuencia, así que una de las sillas en la esquina está apalabrada...es MÍA!!!!!!! 
And just in case there is any disagreement..... 
This is just your brain's way of taking part in the phenomenon called Spanglish" 
Mountaingirl - I'm having a different experience - my job is to produce transcript in District Court. Of late I've noticed that I'm spelling things very strangely (well strange to someone who knows no Spanish). For example "educacion" instead of "education", or "identificacion" instead of "identification" - thank goodness for spellchecking.
However, I'm thinking that maybe in some small way this is a good thing, in that, the "Spanish" part of my brain is "growing" and the "English" part of my brain is contracting...but don't want it to contract too much...I've still got to earn money, you know, so I can travel to lots of Spanish-speaking places
I am normally on SpanishDict early in the morning, before everyone else wakes up, and sometimes I think later about things I've written and realise my brain takes longer to wake up than I realise! :/
I'm not sure if it always did though....
There's a common occurence in language learners called "third language syndrome" whereby you end up screwing up your first language and the second language too, so that you end up with a third language that is essentially incomprehensible.
