I'm learning two dead languages and I used to study German. Sometimes I'm trying to study or translate and my brain just stops taking in or putting out anything. Anybody else had that? If so, are there any work arounds?

  • carbohydra [des/pair]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Personally I find that the better I get at a second language, the worse my native language gets. Say what you will about the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis but having too many languages at once is definitely taxing, especially if you are at the level where you start internalizing unconscious grammar. I assume dead languages are a lot harder to find good materials for so there's probably a lot more processing required. I would keep letting German rest and try to focus on one language at a time.

    • GreenTeaRedFlag [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      I have straight up forgotten english pronunciation rules mid-sentence once or twice and just said a word completely wrong. soft g's are just...not thing for me anymore.

        • GreenTeaRedFlag [any]
          ·
          3 years ago

          there are some, and people do notice when I make a sentence with the stress on every penultimate syllable.

          • MarxGuns [comrade/them]
            ·
            3 years ago

            I never realized how bad it was until I started getting linguistics videos in my YT feed.

      • MarxGuns [comrade/them]
        ·
        3 years ago

        I’ve seen the blonde woman in these YChina videos do this. She’ll code switch into Chinese cause she forget the English words even though she’s a native speaker. I’ve never thought about it but I could see myself doing this off I ever got that far.

        • GreenTeaRedFlag [any]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Sometimes I forget the english names for foreign countries and just call them by the german one. Österreich for Austria or Deutschland for Germany makes enough sense, but I looked weird when I called the Netherlands der Nederlands.