10 More Problems Only a Language Lover Will Understand Posted by meaghan on Oct 20, 2014 in Archived Posts
I’ve got 99 problems and learning a language ain’t one… but these 10 things are. (So are these 10 things from the first post, in case you missed it.)
1. When you think of the right word… immediately after using the wrong one.
One day it will just come out naturally… right?
2. When you try speaking in a foreign language and the other person immediately switches to English.
I’ve put hundreds of hours in to this language. You will give me 2 minutes of your time to practice!
3. When you’re texting in a foreign language and auto correct isn’t playing nice.
Because changing the language back and forth on your phone is such a pain in the…
4. When someone tells you that you’re wasting your time learning so many languages.
Right, because that hour they spend trolling Facebook every night is such a productive use of time.
5. When you’re dying to chime in on a stranger’s conversation in a foreign language, but don’t want to give away that you understand them.
Because eavesdropping in your second language is a thousand times more thrilling than eavesdropping in your native language.
6. When you try to explain some really fascinating aspect of a language to your friends and they Just. Don’t. Care.
Friends? Who needs them, anyway? Nobody understands you like your fellow language lovers do.
7. When someone says “I’m just not good at languages.”
Yeah, because the rest of us are just special or gifted, right? It’s called putting forth the effort, buddy.
8. When you practice over and over in your mind what you plan to say, then somehow a bunch of nonsense spills out of your mouth.
I swear I actually speak this language…
9. When you fall victim to a false cognate.
What an amateur mistake, I should know better.
10. When you feel the random but oh-so-irresistible urge to start learning another new language.
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About the Author: meaghan
Meaghan is the Marketing Communications Manager at Transparent Language. She speaks enough French and Spanish to survive, and remembers enough Hausa to say "Hello my name is Meaghan, I'm studying Hausa." (But sadly that's it).
Comments:
Igor:
As for number 3 – I have a BlackBerry Z10, I can seamlessly type in 3 languages without having to tell the phone to switch. BB10 keyboard is the best, others just watch and wannabe.
Jai:
@Igor The SwiftKey keyboard for Android handles 3 languages at once too, and it’s suggestions and autocorrect leverage machine learning to achieve some of the most accurate spelling and word suggestions in the business.
Adrián:
There is this one which I loath: When someone finds out that you speak another language and they ask you : “How do you say ‘son of a bitch’ in that language?”
My answer in those cases is: “Oh, I’m so glad you are already learning how to introduce yourself!”
Laura:
I’m trying to speak English ( I studied it at school many years ago but I didn’t practise it for a long time) and I ricognizione me in all these problems!!!!!!
javi:
It is even worse when your mobile phone wont display arabic letters corectly
Mardoqueu:
I loved it! Thank you for sharing! hahaha 😀
Sama:
This is exactly what happens!
Andres:
I loved this!