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Native language interference | Daily Digest 26/8/19




Interesting video. But for those of us that have live in another language other than our native tongue, there are some words that I don't have to translate back and forth from English. Having been in Russia for over 3 months on my first trip, there are some words that exist only in Russian in my head. I don't have an English word for a few products, foods, spices, etc...

My brain is definitely English dominant. But I'd have never guessed that when I hit Heathrow in London after over 3 months in Russia, my brain ignored English for a few hours. I'd missed my connecting flight. I was able to get a new flight speaking in English without problems or even thinking about it. So, I wasn't really aware that I wasn't hearing anybody else around me in such a busy airport. After an hour or two of sitting and chatting online (in Russian, of course) I still didn't realize that I was ignoring English until a fellow traveler asked me a simple question like "what time is it?". That broke the connection with Russian. Suddenly it was cacophony in my head with all the sounds of English. It was so strange to feel English being turned back on in my brain. My head buzzed. Literal like buzzed! I could literally feel my brain buzzing like I'd just taken a calculus test or something. I'm not being figurative, at all. It was one of the strangest feelings in my life when I realized that I'd totally ignored my native language for hours. I'd have never thought it was possible, until it happened to me. Incidentally... on my follow up shorter vacations in Russia... I never had that happen upon returning to the US.

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