Funny dream.

[sechan19]

I had a dream recently where I was on my way to a clothing store to exchange some things that didn't fit. When I got to the store, I looked at the proprietress, opened my mouth to speak, and realized that I was about to speak to her in Chinese. (The fully formed sentence Wo keyi huan zhe jian yifu ma? [May I exchange these clothes?] was right on the tip of my tongue.)

I knew she'd never understand me, but for some reason I couldn't seem to get the Chinese words out of my head in order to offer a coherent sentence. So I just stood there for a minute, with my mouth hanging open, while she looked at me quizzically.

Finally the right words came:

Sumimasen, chugokugo de hanashitakattan desu kedo, chugokugo wo hanasu to wakaranai kana to kidzukimashita. Kono fuku wo kaeraremasen ka? (I'm sorry, I wanted to speak Chinese, but I realized that if I did you probably wouldn't understand. Can I exchange these clothes?)

Clearly, it was a Japanese dream - not a Chinese dream.

Silly me.

Comments

[firynze.livejournal.com]

I used to skip Spanish class when I was a freshman in high school to attend a Japanese culture course at the local college, taught by my Japanese tutor. I would sometimes come back in time for the last few minutes of Spanish, and be utterly unable to speak. Anything. At all. Because I couldn't parse what language I was supposed to be working in...

[reteva.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's said that learning languages becomes easier the more you know, but I think that only applies to the most rudimentary understanding of grammar. Once you begin to understand how grammar works, learning new grammar patterns isn't that difficult. But implementing them in real time situations remains hard, and it gets harder the more you have to choose from.

I used to have the same problem when I first moved to France and my best second language was Spanish. I kept trying to reply to people in Spanish, even though I knew the basic French response. Now when I try to speak French, which I had a strong base in by the time I moved home, I wind up speaking Japanese unless I'm very, very careful. I'll be damned if the Japanese gets replaced with Chinese. ;>

[firynze.livejournal.com]

I have a hard time visiting Quebec sometimes, because I want to talk to people in Spanish.

[reteva.livejournal.com]

The more we talk, the more I get convinced that we were separated at birth. ;>

[lordameth.livejournal.com]

LIKE.