Found this if you want to have a little fun.
One of my aunts left me a note on facebook recommending the 'alphabet game' for when I couldn't sleep.
Woke up around 5am today, and thought I would put it into action. Stupid me. I tried it in Catalan.
What was amazing was that I couldn't do it. My vocabulary in Catalan is, at this point, pretty reasonable. Nothing like my vocab in English, but still, I have a pretty good range. I can handle most conversations and write letters to the architect, report cards etc.
What was really fascinating for me, and really bad for the rest of the night's sleep, was the realisation that I simply could not access the information in that way. Kind of like a red delicious apple. Looks like a normal enough apple till you slice it laterally and discover the lovely star hidden inside. Well. I didn't find any stars, but I then spent the next while pondering why it is that I simply could not access Catalan coming at it sideways like that. I could come up with one or maybe two words for each letter, the best I did was three. Let me tell you, I know a lot more than 52 words in Catalan, so that just doesn't add up.
Something to ponder. Why is it that my brain has stored and sorted all that Catalan without providing a cross-referencing index, for lack of a better word. Very poor librarian working up there I must say.
Not good for my sleep either.
4 comments:
Language and the brain. Strange doings.
(I’d say stop me if I’ve already told you the following story – but you can’t!)
When Sam had his wisdom teeth removed, he reacted badly to the drugs and totally freaked out – in French! Which freaked everyone out – including him. He could hear himself but couldn’t stop – either the French or the freaking.
(He’s a French Immersion kid…)
Nice header!
I think it only works in english!
Oddly enough, from my time spent speaking english, I now have non-overlapping parts in my vocabularies. There are words in english that I would use, understand, but not manage to find a translation in French, and vice versa. Sometimes, I also mix my thoughts in both languages. Looks funny when I write down notes without paying attention :D
Beth...it is sooo very weird how the brain works, and so very amazing. I should have been a neurologist.
Boo and Trev. Absolutely.
ElP, Yes, I am also starting to do that, and some of the women I work with as well. There is one woman in particular, we bounce back and forth between the languages depending on the moment. Today I ended up speaking English with a non-English speaking person, and then switching to Catalan to talk to the woman who I bounce back and forth with. Brain freeze! She complains too that she is getting English intrusions into her native Catalan from using it so much with me.
Weird weird weird.
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