Friday, August 14, 2020

Tumblr Thread: Bilingual Struggles Inspire Hilarious Blunders


What starts as a funny observation about what to look for when identifying a bilingual character who was clearly not written by a bilingual person, evolves into a wonderful Tumblr thread about various struggles experienced by bilingual speakers. It's clear that our brains are doing the best they can, and when you task the brain with hopping between languages inevitable brain farts can occur. 

1.

Text - mothman @LEVKAWA how to tell whena bilingual character was not written by a bilingual person 101 "Hola ¿Qué pasa?" Lance said. "Uh...what?" "Ah, sorry. It's hard to switch back sometimes. What's up?" He corrected.

2.

Text - gunvolt im going to have a stroke prideling Instead try... Person A: You know... the thing Person B: The "thing"? Person A: Yeah, the thing with the little-! "mutters under their breath" Como es que se llama esa mierda... THE FISHING ROD

3.

Text - artykyn As someone with multiple bilingual friends where English is not the first language, may I present to you a list of actual incidents I have witnessed: • Forgot a word in Spanish, while speaking Spanish to me, but remembered it in English. Became weirdly quiet as they seemed to lose their entire sense of identity. Used a literal translation of a Russian idiomatic expression while speaking English. He actually does this quite regularly, because he somehow genuinely forgets which idio

4.

Text - Had to count backwards for something. Could not count backwards in English. Counted backwards in French under her breath until she got to the number she needed, and then translated it into English. • Meant to inform her (French) parents that bread in America is baked with a lot of preservatives. Her brain was still halfway in English Mode so she used the word "préservatifes." Ended up shocking her parents with the knowledge that apparently, bread in America is full of condoms. • Defined a

5.

Text - Was talking to both me and his mother in English when his mother had to revert to Russian to ask him a question about a word. He said "I don't know" and turned to me and asked "Is there an English equivalent for Hymn3maTnyeCKUň?" and it took him a solid minute to realize there was no way I would be able to answer that. Meanwhile his mom quietly chuckled behind his back. • Said an expression in English but with Spanish grammar, which turned "How stressful!" into "What stressing!" Bilingual

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