My brain on language

Mt. Kilimanjaro from the air

Imagine you're reaching into a bag. In the bag are a variety of shapes, in four different colors. Each color has a unique texture, but only slightly. Now you've got to reach into the bag and pull out a yellow star.

Hopefully you're not reaching into this bag...

If you've been pulling out yellow items all day, your fingers and brain know what texture to be feeling for. If, however, you've been pulling out green items all day, your fingers might think (at least for a moment) that the blue star is the right texture and that's what you pull out instead.

"Mana ntrini ulaguao tan rapido?" "J'ai compri muy mashteku."

And herein lies the problem of Spanglish, or Spanench, Franchani, or whatever-language combinations. You know any number of languages, but sometimes the first word that comes out of the bag is the right shape but the wrong color/texture. So you reach into your bag trying to get the French word for "dog" and come out with the Spanish word. Right shape... wrong color.

So if you see a multi-lingual person pause for a moment before uttering a simple word or mix languages from one phrase to the next, just realize that it's not always as easy as it looks.

And all that to say, I'm back in the land of language learning, and my brain is messed up. But it's a fun mess and a great challenge.

Breakfast with Kenya Airways

Heading home to the islands!

Island from the air