Blog #13 different languages (Sapana Bali)
I believe the first time I discovered that I knew a language was when I went to elementary school. Okay honestly i was not the brightest kid but in kindergarten i remember that i was always pulled out of class to do this test which required me to say words in english. My thought process was “why am i doing this because i already know the language” but the teacher's thought process was “she may not know english”. What happened was my mom decided to put on my registration form that I only knew Hindi, which is a language I grew up with in the house or around my parents. I did not realize that would happen or that would be the result of that which is why i was so confused throughout my primary school times.
Fast forward to that my friends during school would speak to me in english and they would say things like phrases in english which i already knew but i would sometimes speak in hindi thinking that english and hindi are the same language, again not the brightest but i was like 5 years old. When my friends eventually told my teacher that I was speaking gibberish to them, she went up to me and asked what language I was speaking and I responded with “I'm speaking English”. I really said that and till this day I will continue to face palm myself because that was the dumbest thing I've ever said.
So basically i thought that hindi and english were the same thing until i told my mom and she straight up started laughing in my face and said “ur silly”. A 5 year old me was so confused why she was laughing and then she proceeded to explain that those two languages are different. Some people may not understand either one or the other. Hindi is a language that we know while english is a language that everyone may know and understand, both languages are world wide but she explained it in a way that i understood. My 5 year old self has never been more shookened because that completely blew my mind and that was the day when I started to self study these languages because I did not want to make the mistake of mixing them up.
Comments
I thought that your anecdote was really funny and tbh I can kinda relate to it. I mean we were all stupid kindergarteners who had no idea what we are doing. I was actually born in India,but I came to the US when I was like 1, so I know more English than Telugu, in fact I sound white-washed when I speak telugu...it's so bad.
Sincerely,
Mrinmayee
It’s not that embarrassing since you were so young and languages do sound the same when we are young. For me, I also used to speak a mix of English and Chinese when I was little, since Chinese was my first language. My kindergarten teacher would always complain that my friend and I were speaking Chinese and not English, which helped me differentiate between English and Chinese. It sucks that my Chinese speaking skills are becoming worse now because of how whitewashed I am…
Sincerely,
Faith Tong
I honestly did not understand the concept of language when I was younger. I just knew that some people used different words. Language is honestly such an interesting topic. It’s so bizarre to me that a long time ago, different people took the time to create words that have different meanings and memories associated with them. How many languages do you speak?
I really liked your anecdote and found it quite amusing. To be honest I was not a bright child as well in my primary school years and still could say is not. Whenever we had this English thing where we would test the speed and accuracy of words we would speak in I would talk gibberish or go very slow which contributed to me being a slower learner. Since I usually talk Chinese at home, sometimes I would mistaken myself with English as thinking that they are the same and speak completely something not understandable.
I really like your anecdote and honestly, it's relatable. As a kid, I think I knew more Mandarin than English at one point(little does young me know that I don't even speak Mandarin anymore). I feel like certain languages just flow better at times and you sometimes do not pick up the fact that you are not actually speaking English...but a different language. It's cool how our brain processes a different language though, and we end up translating it to English(that's what my brain does ngl).