Current Events > Do bilingual people really switch between languages on the fly for no reason?

(+) Yeah! (+)

One thing that always feels weird to me is in movies and shows when 2 people are talking who know English and a different language. It's just them. Nobody else is around and they keep switching back and forth between languages. They will say a sentence in 1 then a sentence in another.

It's especially weird if the show makes it clear the other language is their native tongue. So then I wonder why are they using English at all, since nobody else is there who would benefit from if

But I am not bilingual. Is this a thing in real life or is it just something movies do?

my one Indian regular does

so do some of my Latino customers, not all though

so I think yes, sometimes is the answer

Yeah, wires get crossed in the brain sometimes.

I only speak one language natively but have learnt two more. I can switch pretty easily, though I've rarely spoken the wrong one accidentally and never changed unintentionally mid-conversation.

some do but not everyone and it's not the majority

it's mainly used to establish a character's identity

Had a group of friends that did. They'd switch from English to Japanese with each other often. I was left out on so many conversations.

Did you see Everything, Everywhere All at Once, TC?

BurmesePenguin posted...

Did you see Everything, Everywhere All at Once, TC?

Best movie Ive seen in years

BurmesePenguin posted...

Did you see Everything, Everywhere All at Once, TC?

No not yet. I'll watch it when it's on streaming for less than 20 bucks.

Also my parents are bilingual (well my mom is trilingual technically lol) and they do switch between them often.

Very common for Spanish speakers, and apparently something polyglots will just always do with each other.

Zikten posted...

No not yet. I'll watch it when it's on streaming for less than 20 bucks.

You really should try and see it in theaters

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Gimme an example of some incorrectly bent words please

Yes.

https://youtu.be/Cs0AVDU6_L0

I'm kinda trilingual, and my native language has at least three sets of it's own language.

When I hear bilingual latinos talking it's all straight up nonstop spanish

They switch up a lot in movies so people won't have to keep reading subtitles like in Dark Fate

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

I like it

what languages are we combining here?

Assuming whoever I'm speaking to is fluent in both languages then yes.
Often times I just speak w/e comes into my head first. Sometimes it's easier to explain or say a word in one language over the other as well.

It depends on the person and at what stage they learned their second language. I find this is more common with people who grew up with one language and learned a second language in adulthood. At that point theres just hard coding in your brain you can never truly overcome

Yes I switch between English and Spanish all the time.

I'm a native Dutch speaker and very frequently mix English words and phrases in my Dutch vocabulary. Usually this is because I feel like the English way of saying something is more accurate at that moment, and the average Dutch person speaks English well enough anyway.

Yes

I knew a girl who could speak 4 languages but Spanish was her first and she routinely would casually slip back into speaking Spanish for absolutely no reason sometimes.

Considering I can't speak Spanish it was mildly annoying :P