Language Soup

To my right, everyone is speaking Chinese.  I eavesdrop unashamedly- when you can only pick out a few words, that's not really even eavesdropping, right?  It's language study.  At least, that's what our group of beginning language learners decided on the train the other week.

The six of us are deep in conversation when the man with the suitcase approaches.  He leans in and asks a question of the man by the window.  The word "Flughafen" (airport) drifts into our consciousness.   A sudden silence descends.  Heads pivot toward the man asking a question, as those across the aisle shift slightly.  We all listen intently.   The spell broken as he walks off, there's some embarrassed laughter.  Random stranger on the bus to Munich- I promise we weren't prying into your personal life.  We were just excited that we understood the word airport and hoping to catch some more juicy details.  You know, like numbers.  We understand those too.


But anyways, back to Chinese.  The Chinese speakers happen to be in my German class.  I sit surrounded by them.  That Chinese that I studied 7 years ago (wait, it can't possibly be that long ago already, can it?) is being stirred up, moved a little closer to the top from where it was buried under Finnish.  Two weeks into class now, I'm emboldened.  I try out random phrases now and then on my classmates- "Is this yours?"  "I don't know." Their delighted response to my rusty Chinese is all the encouragement I need to try another phrase the next day.

A little farther to my left in class, there's a group of 3 from Spain.  I'm writing down the meanings of my German vocabulary words as the teacher is checking homework.  Her response to a question from the Spanish speakers floats over to me.  She's speaking Spanish too.  My mind subconsciously slips into Spanish mode.  When I look at my vocabulary list, I realize I've just translated a word from German into Spanish instead of English.

Finnish however. . .  My brain feels like soup.  All the different languages are mixed up and the words are floating around, lost in there somewhere.  Some of them are easier to find.  The ones I hear and use everyday, they stay floating at the top.  But Finnish- all that vocabulary is stuck on the bottom.  I try to form a simple sentence.  I know the words are there somewhere.  But somehow, I can't seem to find them.  I mentally practice the days of the week, just to keep them fresh in my mind.  Maanantai, tiistai, keskiviikko, wait, what's Thursday? perjantai, lauantai, sunnuntai.  It bugs me for a whole day.  I can't remember Thursday.  Someone finally looks it up for me on their smart phone. Torstai.  Really?  I remember lauantai and keskiviikko, but the one that sounds MOST like it's English equivalent escapes me?

It's a strange experience for me, this language soup I'm in.  But I think, despite my confusion and occasional mental fatigue from a brain that's trying to process any language it can get its hands on, I like it.