Nine Problems with being Multilingual
There are at least five languages that I know; I speak Tagalog, Bikol, Filipino, English, and Spanish. Not to mention, Taglish and Spanglish.
1. Unknowingly, you commit grammatical mistakes
In English, white house is spoken and written as that. In Spanish, you say it as casa blanca, if you would say that in English it would be house white.
2. You could only really write in the language that you know best
One piece I wrote in Filipino, I inadvertently spelled baliktad as baligtad.
3. Shifting from one language to another while speaking has a delay lapse of proper accent
This is the funniest because people who do not know you think that you really come from another country.
4. The two lesser and least languages you know are just conversational or really basic
When I speak in Bikol it is just enough to get by. When I hear deep Bikol words then I become lost in translation.
5. People sometimes are confused why you are multilingual
My father and mother spoke to us in English and Tagalog. My siblings and I learned Bikol when we went to school.
6. People are surprised I could speak Spanish
I was required to study four semesters of Spanish at the University. But now, I am slowly forgetting it. As they say, if you do not use it you lose it. When I had read that facility in foreign languages prevent Alzheimer's then I decided to immerse myself back into the language of Cervantes.
7. Sometimes dreams could be in different languages
Well, it would depend on who I was speaking with in the dream of course.
8. While speaking in one particular language, a word or two from other languages pop up
The look of surprise from the person you are talking to is amusing, and they would ask what is that word?
Finally, you become like a United Nations Interpreter when a situation arises that you could translate for some people without a common language. But that is more of an advantage, isn't it?
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