My thoughts of speaking two different languages daily/mes pensées sur le fait de parler de langues différentes quotidiennement

[watereyes]

This thread will be in both english and french/Ce thread est en anglais et en français


It makes my life harder to know more than one language, because I can't speak either properly. I was born in France, my mother tongue is romanian, and I learned french soon after I learned Romanian. My romanian is really rusty, I can't express myself the way I want but I can still understand it. I started learning english when I was 12 years old and I was often exposed to it from the age of 13 (thanks to the interwebz, I guess). I cannot properly express myself without using french and english at the same time. I'm an internet nerd, so I learned a lot from there.

But then, I have trouble explaining the concepts I learned by watching content in english, because I simply do not know the words in french. I'll give an example, regarding my transition and meds, I always did my research in english, so there was a language barrier with my endocrinologist.


For example, from french to english:


MtF HRT : THS féminisant

SRS : I still don't know. I call it 'chirurgie pour en bas' (surgery for down there) or 'opération'

FFS : I don't know. I call it 'chirurgie du visage' (face surgery)

To pass : there's no word for it in french, so I'm using the english word, among other trans people it works, but with cis people they don't understand what I mean.

sublingual : I don't know. I say sub.

Having these difficulties while expressing myself sucks. I like to speak 'frenglish' with people who speak both languages (such as english teachers). A sentence would sound like this : J'ai pris 30mg de valium en sub j'ai pass out comment c'était débile. Me dis pas que c'est cringe t'aurais fait pareil à ma place, j'ai encore ces putains de mood swings. love you and I'm sorry

Funny thing, when my consciousness drifts away I speak english. Like when I'm about to pass out or do sedatives, or wake up from anesthesia.

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Ça rend ma vie plus compliquée de connaître plus d'une langue, car je peux en parler aucune correctement. Je suis née en France, et ma langue maternelle est le roumain, puis j'ai appris le Français un peu après avoir apris le roumain. Mon Roumain est plutôt rouillé, je peux pas m'exprimer comme je veux mais je peux toujours le comprendre. J'ai commencé à apprendre l'anglais j'avais 12 ans, et j'y ai été exposée plus souvent à partir de l'âge de 13 ans (grand merci à l'interwebz, j'imagine). Je peux pas correctement m'exprimer sans utiliser le français et l'anglais en même temps. On peut dire que je suis une 'nerd' donc j'ai beaucoup trainé sur internet et c'est là que j'ai appris.

Mais ensuite, j'arrive pas à expliquer les concepts que j'ai appris en regardant du contenu en anglais, parce que je connais simplement pas les mots en français. Je vais donner un exemple; en ce qui concerne ma transition et les médocs, j'ai toujours fait mes recherches en anglais, donc y a une barrière de langue avec mon endocrinologue.

Par exemple, de l'anglais au français :

MtF HRT : THS féminisant

SRS : Je sais toujours pas. Je dis 'chirurgie pour en bas' ou 'opération'

FFS : Je sais pas. J'appelle ça 'chirurgie du visage'

To pass : y a pas de mot en français, donc j'utilise le terme anglais. avec les autres personnes trans ça passe, mais pas tellement avec les cis.

sublingual : je sais pas. je dis que je prends les trucs en sub.

Avoir ces difficultés pour m'exprimer ça fait chier. J'aime bien parler 'franglais' avec les gens qui parlent anglais et français (comme les profs d'anglais par exemple). Une phrase sonnerait comme ça : J'ai pris 30mg de valium en sub j'ai pass out comment c'était débile. Me dis pas que c'est cringe t'aurais fait pareil à ma place, j'ai encore ces putains de mood swings. love you and I'm sorry

Truc marrant, quand ma conscience s'en va je parle anglais, comme juste avant de m'évanouir ou en ayant pris des sédatifs, ou encore en me réveillant d'une anesthésie.

 

[motel rooms]

Hey. Why does it still say "He's a frickin' nerd!" under your profile pic although you're a mod? Isn't that against the forum rules?

 

[watereyes]

Hey. Why does it still say "He's a frickin' nerd!" under your profile pic although you're a mod? Isn't that against the forum rules?

thats nothing to do with my thread, but no its not against the rules. I can have a custom title as a mod.

 

[motel rooms]

thats nothing to do with my thread, but no its not against the rules. I can have a custom title as a mod.

I was just kidding. Feel free to remove my post.

 

[watereyes]

I was just kidding. Feel free to remove my post.

i can't lol, i'm only chat mod uwu

 

[Snake of Eden]

As a bilingual i relate to what you say however imo it is not so much your competence in languages that is making it hard for you to immaculately translate your thoughts between both languages. Sometimes concepts dont transfer that well between languages. Each language reflects its speakers history, culture and their day to day view of the world. Some languages are more sophisticated and have words that only exist in them which makes it a hard job to transfer the idea into the target language. Also things like forms of dyslexia can make people struggle more with expressing themselves as easily as healthy normal people and I have this problem like saying the order of sentences in the right order or forgetting or repeating words stuff like that. Some people are just intrinsically better than others at expressing themselves or be adept at multiple languages. I wouldnt beat myself over it much

 

[Smart No More]

It's true. There are some words that encompass whole philosophies in some languages where another would need paragraphs of text to cover it. Similarly some words can be over simplistic. As touched on by @zeroornothing some people are not open or atuned to some concepts or philosophies as they were never exposed to it or its surrounding logic. I guess that's just communication in general as that can happen in a community speaking only one/the same language but adding a second, third, forth language is obviously going to add further complexity. It is what it is but its a shame that the whole world isn't on a conceptually level playground as a result. That said , some of the theories that permeate through the ages aren't always the most cohesive or beneficial to be exposed to, ha. People are and have been crazy throughout all time. Swings and roundabouts.

 

[little helpers]

think it's called code switching. I do this too.

 

[Sanva]

i often feel similar in the sense that i spend so much time alone inside consuming english media and so little time outside talking to people in my native language that my english has become better than my german. i think in english. it's hard for me to talk to people in german because often i only remember the english word for something.

 

[Circles]

Hell I envy those who are bilingual. I took French classes for 2 years and wish I could've remembered and kept up with it, but it's kinda hard to keep it up when I had no one to practice with or talk to. Not many French speaking areas in North America.

 

[Silenos]

 

[Life sucks]

I think you're amazing and you can always improve your skills in the languages you already know. Every language needs time, practice, a lot of vocabulary, etc and you are aware of that, it's fine if you don't know some words, the amount of vocabulary is usually overwhelming in any language. Your internal thoughts are fine and you can use any language you feel comfortable with.

If you want to improve, you can practice for a short time everyday, write the words you use usually or struggle with in the different languages you know.

Good thing is that you now have a special power, you can learn more languages faster especially the ones related to both French and Romanian.