Other than my native language, I speak German, English and Spanish (although not as good as the other two, but good enough to speak and understand). And yes, I agree with your French friend - I personally find it easier to speak about certain things in a foreign language than in my own.
When I was 18, I visited Germany for the first time, and even though I spoke German well at that time, I still didn't speak it as good as I do now. I remember having a conversation about sexuality with a group of foreigners and a single German guy, and I remember using the word 'Muttermund' (which means uterine orifice in English - sorry if you already knew that) without blushing or without thinking that it was a big deal. The German guy was the only one who looked uncomfortable - the others regarded this word usage as normal as I did, except of the native speaker. It just sounds more harmless to use such words in another language, even though you know what they mean - it's a funny phenomena, but with the years spent here, I've only convinced myself that it's so.
The thing that horrifies me most, however, is the fact that I've started not to be able to express what I want to say in my native language - often, only the German or English word occur to me, or if the Bulgarian one occurs after all, I find it strangely sounding and completely inappropriate for what I want to say. It's horrible, because I remember that I used to laugh at my English teacher for having exactly the same problems in class then, and I mocked her because I thought that she'd just wanted to show off.
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Date: 2004-12-12 04:48 am (UTC)When I was 18, I visited Germany for the first time, and even though I spoke German well at that time, I still didn't speak it as good as I do now. I remember having a conversation about sexuality with a group of foreigners and a single German guy, and I remember using the word 'Muttermund' (which means uterine orifice in English - sorry if you already knew that) without blushing or without thinking that it was a big deal. The German guy was the only one who looked uncomfortable - the others regarded this word usage as normal as I did, except of the native speaker. It just sounds more harmless to use such words in another language, even though you know what they mean - it's a funny phenomena, but with the years spent here, I've only convinced myself that it's so.
The thing that horrifies me most, however, is the fact that I've started not to be able to express what I want to say in my native language - often, only the German or English word occur to me, or if the Bulgarian one occurs after all, I find it strangely sounding and completely inappropriate for what I want to say. It's horrible, because I remember that I used to laugh at my English teacher for having exactly the same problems in class then, and I mocked her because I thought that she'd just wanted to show off.