tried to speak my 2nd language in the accent of my 3rd language what the hell

[u/TrainingSurvey3780]

does anybody else ever do this?? usually the worst i've done is saying some words in the wrong langauge (e.g. speaking 2nd language and accidentally say one or 2 words per sentence in 3rd language) but today i switched my duolingo from french to spanish (cuz i'm gonna be studying alevel spanish and thought i should refresh my memory a bit) and the first exercise was a speaking one and i read the whole sentence as if it was in french (like with french phonics and treating the words as if they were french e.g. silent t at the end yk) and it took me a solid minute to figure out what i'd done

does this mean my french is getting better or my spanish is worsening? also sometimes i forget words in my 1st language and say them in my 3rd cuz i forgot it in my 2nd WHY IS THIS SO CONFUSING

[u/Ill-Pianist-8586]

brains just grabbing whatever language file is nearest and running with it, happens all the time

[u/Muad_Dib_of_Arrakis]

Ive been learning German with an angeleno spanish accent, it happens

[u/Professionalrubberr]

the real kicker is when you nail the accent of a language you barely speak, so you sound like a parody of yourself in both.

[u/HipsEnergy → u/Professionalrubberr]

I arrived at my B1 level Dutch class late, and the teacher had gone on maternity leave. I excused myself the moment I walked in, still by the door, and the teacher said I was in the wrong class. I said no, I was sure I was in the right class, this was Marieke's class. He said "no, I have Marieke's class, you probably have the class next door."

I said no, definitely Marieke, B1. By then, the other students were laughing, because they got it, and one said "we know her, she's in this class."

Teacher asked me why I was in a B1 Dutch class if I was Dutch (this is in Belgium, the accents are very different). I told him I wasn't, I just had a really Dutch accent, and he'd find out soon enough when I started making stupid mistakes 🤣.

He still laughs about it.

[u/SomeBaldDude2013]

Learned Spanish and then Portuguese. Married a Brazilian and speak Portuguese with my wife every day. My pronunciation when speaking Spanish has definitely taken a hit because my brain is primed for speaking Portuguese. I think it’s quite common when you know/are learning multiple related languages. 

[u/ohmyitsanalien]

I feel you. My French teacher laughed at me when I confidently answered correctly in Spanish. This was 15 years ago, and I still remember the confusion on her face.

[u/cmyk_rgba]

lol yes and it never happens on sentence one, its always word three when im already feeling smug about it. ordered something in germany with full finnish vowels once and the guy just switched to english on the spot. brain grabs whichever non native folder happens to be open

[u/EasternWeather3639]

lol, German with a French accent!

[u/hopium_od → u/EasternWeather3639]

That's just Alsatian isn't it?

[u/Notgermangenug]

I don’t practice switching between 2 and 3. When I do, it is always the wrong pronunciation 

[u/ResourceIcy4569]

your brain is just filing all the languages under “not english” and grabbing whichever one loads first, it’s annoying but honestly a pretty normal multilingual problem lol

[u/dojibear]

does this mean my french is getting better or my spanish is worsening?

One sentence? The very first sentence after switching? Of course not.

also sometimes i forget words in my 1st language and say them in my 3rd cuz i forgot it in my 2nd WHY IS THIS SO CONFUSING

Are these words that you memorized using flashcards/Anki? If so, it's easy to confuse them. The experience of seeing a flashcard with a French word is very similar to the experience of seeing a flashcard with a Spanish word. Especially if the "meaning" of the two words is the same.

Also, the words might be similar. This happens a lot with French and Spanish words (aimes; amas). It doesn't happen with Spanish and Japanese wrods (me gusta; suki desu).

[u/TrainingSurvey3780 → u/dojibear]

i use anki for nouns/infinitive verbs in french (to up the amount of vocab that i can recognise since i wasn't really brought up speaking the language)

i also do use anki for spanish, but i use it for conjugating verbs rather than vocab. it's usually only ever nouns (or other words that aren't verbs basically like 'or' or 'with' yk) that i confuse, i think i have the conjugations pretty nailed down from language to language