Linda wrote:I find languages fascinating though learning a language does not come easy to me. But a strange thing happens sometimes when I am learning languages. While learning Ojibwe (Chippewa) I would be trying to remember a word - say the word for water (which is nibi) but when I couldn't remember the word in Ojibwe it would come to me immediately and easily in Spanish (agua). And I hadn't been reading or speaking Spanish for years, but if I was trying to remember the word directly in Spanish, it would not come to me. This has happened many times while learning Ojibwe. Then lately, I was trying to think of a word in Spanish and the word in Ojibwe came to me. This is frustrating! I don't understand why my mind works like this. Has anyone else experienced something like this?
It's likely because you have words compartmentalized in your brain as "English" and "Not English". I would think that's pretty common for someone who does language study late in life. When I was learning French and making the transition to thinking in the language there was a period of time when I would look at a common object and literally not know what to call it in ANY language because I'd been immersed in French so long that I'd stopped thinking in English but I didn't know the word in French yet. It was a truly strange feeling. I'm thinking that people who learn languages well have to somehow separate the languages in their brain so they don't get mixed up. You've just got two categories apparently. Or that's what I think.
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