The Bilingual Brain
The other day I was writing one of my J-List updates, and a rather embarrassing thing happened to me: I found myself unable to recall an English word I needed, although I knew what it was in Japanese. The word in question was sekkyoku-teki (sek-kyo-koo teh-kee), which means assertive or proactive or forward-thinking, and for some odd reason only the brain can understand, I could recall the Japanese term but not its English counterpart. So I asked my Japanese wife what the word was in English, and she told me, no doubt smirking to herself; I thanked her, remembering the infrequent but fun occasions when she momentarily forgot how to write a certain kanji character and I was able to whip it out for her. Being bilingual can be fun, but a little weird, too!
There's nothing I can learn that my brain isn't capable of forgetting.
posted by Peter in Japan at 5:29 PM
6 Comments:
I think that whatever language you learn a concept in, it sticks with you in that language!
7:36 PM
Haha tell me about it, I've had to deal with this problem my whole life, and now, adding japanese to my other 4 languages, it's getting really interesting... :P
2:11 AM
I have those too! But there are certain words I almost never can remember in my mother language but can surely remember in English! The ones I remember now: accent, hang over, hanger, failure. I have no idea why I have a hard time remembering the meaning in Portuguese. Maybe because I learnt those by myself?
9:56 AM
Cool, Margarita, what languages do you speak? I've learned that it's dangerous to study a little Italian than a little Spanish, the two will merge in your brain terribly ^_^
Yes, Vy, the brain is a strange thing. Another word I always forget in English but can remember in Japanese is 影響する eikyo suru, to affect or influence. I regularly have to look that one up in English, how silly.
6:49 PM
Growing up in a Cantonese household, there are lots of foods that I STILL have no idea what they're called in English or even if they have an English name beyond some terrible romanization of the Chinese one. And for the ones that do have English equivalents, sometimes my brain slips and I'll say the direct translation of the Chinese word rather than the English name, which is usually completely different.
Actually, rather recently, I accidentally called a papaya a "wood melon" since that's what 木瓜 translates into. Oops!
6:17 AM
I'm yonsei American and know very little Japanese. Yet, there are Japanese words that I revert to and forget the English counterpart all the time. I've never even been to Japan. However, now that I'm in Sweden for study abroad, I'll switch between English, Japanese, and Swedish and forget the counterpart in the other languages. My poor brain.
8:31 AM
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