Speaking Spankish
“Bir kilo,” I said, pointing to the row of rich red produce, letting my extended finger cover for the fact I didn’t know the Turkish word for tomato.
The man shook open a thin plastic bag and started filling it. He turned around and placed it on his scale, then quickly resolved the slight deficit shown by adding another tomato.
“Uç,” he said, holding up three fingers. Pete handed over the correct change and we smiled at him, preparing to move on.
“Çok graçias!” I said with confidence, realizing my mistake only after receiving his quizzical expression in response.
D’oh! I did it again.
Çok = very much (in Turkish)
Graçias = thank you (in Spanish)
I followed it up with some cursing in English, which I hoped he didn’t understand either.
Is it Spankish? Or Spurkish?
All I know is that as soon as I am immersed in a foreign language and hear a tongue other than English, Spanish comes out. Or some gnarled version of it, twisted together with whatever other language I’m trying to speak at that point.
And I’m not even that good at Spanish, it’s just that it’s the next most natural thing after spending so much time in Latin America. It’s replaced any French I learned in school and makes me believe that my brain might only have room for one other language besides English.
With enough premeditation, I can usually get the first word or phrase out in the proper language, but then I naturally follow up with Spanish. I repeatedly say “si” instead of “evet“ (both meaning yes), and always use “no“ when I should be saying “hayır“. And even better, I have perfected the Spankish phrase of “si, teşekkürler” when I just want to say “yes, thank you”.
My best intentions in foreign countries always include trying to learn some of the local language, as I believe it can firmly enrich the experience when I’m able to converse with the locals. Yet at best I can only get a few words out before divulging into complete nonsense. It is becoming so terribly frustrating.
I just don’t think my brain works that way.
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Haha! This is the story of my life. When I was in Brazil, any of my attempts at Portuguese were totally undermined by my random outbursts of Spanish.
Luckily many people could get the gist of what I was saying, but it was SO frustrating!
On the brighter side, I’m sure everyone appreciates that you’re at least trying to communicate with them in Turkish 🙂
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Yes, I’m certain they appreciate our effort. When Turkish (or Spurkish) comes out of our mouths, we almost always instantaneously see a smile. I am a firm believer that you have to make the mistakes in order to learn (as long as somebody tells you you’re making a mistake 😉 Thanks Christina!
A lot of the expats including me always do that with Turkish / English. They call it Turklish!
BTW – didn’t have you down as a person that cursed! 😉
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Love it. And yes, Dalene has been known to throw the odd curse word out 🙂
I have done that some thing again and again. I took three years of Spanish in high school and never did anything with it. But whenever I was in Kazakhstan, it would come out so naturally.
It’s funny how it almost instinctively comes out naturally. We’re getting better though.
My husband and I definitely speak Spanglish ALL the time, but we have kinda created our own Spanglish language as well that we totally understand and no one else does and people think we’re craaaaazy!
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That’s awesome. Having your own secret language would be very beneficial. This may be something Dalene and I do at some point too.
Oh my gosh I do this too! After spending my entire education in French Immersion I always speak French in foreign countries! Especially in Spanish countries because Spanish sounds so similar to French to my ear… my brain is translating into French instead of English so I can understand so I always answer back in French!
I believe it. On our last trip to Guatemala I would sometimes get my French verbs mixed up with the Spanish. I think I remember conjugating manger instead of comer and getting some strange looks.
What a relief I am not the only one that does this! We are living in France now and the first 2 weeks were atrocious with me using si and gracias. Relieved to say my mouth and brain are now in sync at last !
Frenish? Franish? Sprench? Glad to hear you starting to get sync’d up now. We’re getting better too 🙂
This happens to me A LOT, though ironically, most often whenever I try to speak Spanish! 😉 I only took a year of it in highschool but am pretty much fluent in French and took 3 years of Latin, which leaves me in the position that I tend to understand a lot more Spanish than I can actually speak. And because of my complexion, people often assume that I speak Spanish, when I very much don’t. Whenever I try to cobble together sentences, I inevitably end up being able to say half in Spanish (on a good day!) and half in French. I am pretty good at learning languages, but even in Asia when I am trying to think of how to say something, I tend to default to French, which is rarely—if ever—useful. I think it must have something to do with us suppressing our native language and so the next most-fluent one bubbles up!
I am glad we are not the only ones who combine our languages into sentences. If we ever sat still for long enough we might be able to get better, but where’s the fun in that 🙂
No entiendo, ripetere si vous plais – what a fellow student said in my Italian class to the professor. At least he got one word correct. 🙂
Go for the Spurkish – make life more interesting!
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Wow, Franishtalian? That’s funny. Like Andi mentioned above, maybe we can make a secret language out of this and be able to communicate with one another and hardly nobody will understand… Although where we are here, we can just speak English and 99.9% of people will not understand us anyway.
OK Pete, coffee in the nose now – seriously.
Franishtalian – Mmmmwwaaahhh.
I can totally relate. I have studied several languages but it’s so hard on the brain to keep them straight; Portuguese is my second language, and it seems to have replaced all others that I have learned. I did terribly at any attempts to try speaking Italian on my last trip abroad. Luckily no one seemed to mind speaking English with me.
I’m always shocked how much English is known around the world. At least you tried in Italy, and that’s what counts. I think making the mistakes is the best way to learn, as long as someone corrects you that is… Cheers!
Yeah, I definitely suffer from speaking in made-up languages too. I studied French in university, and I think that years of being called on by professors and nervously blurting out French means that, now, if I panic and I know I’m supposed to be speaking another language, French tends to pop out.
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It’s funny how subconsciously we have all this language built up and it comes out when English is not the first language. I’m amazed how much French I can remember from school.
That’s great, Tim does the same thing but usually includes French words. Keeps it interesting that’s for sure.
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My French has definitely come out at times too. I am actually starting to mix up a lot of languages. When we were in Central America this winter I was trying to ask about peppers and using the Turkish word for them, and I looked at them like they were crazy for not knowing what I was talking about…
hahah that’s great
This cracked me up! I think I like Spankish better. Spurkish sounds like a mild insult.
It kind of does sound like an insult. The votes are close!
This made me laugh! At least you’re trying to speak the language and that’s got to be the important thing. I’m terrible at languages so can totally relate.
I’m from Wales and we have a special language we call ‘Winglish’. It’s a mixture between English and Welsh and sounds absolutely ridiculous.
Love it! When we used to live in Canada our neighbour was Welsh and he told me about this “Winglish”. He said a few phrases to me and I didn’t have a clue.
I don’t know how many times I’ve done the same thing. I speak English and Chinese natively and use them for mixed when I speak with someone. They usually have no idea what I’m saying.
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Awesome. I love that confused look they give and then we look at them as saying, “what, I thought I was perfectly clear.” not even realizing what we’ve said. Cheers Mike!
I do the SAME thing whenever I travel outside of a Spanish or English-speaking country. Ugh, it can be so embarrassing!
We get some funny laughs when it happens. Well usually just us laughing and the people on the other side tilting their head saying “What?!?!” Glad we’re not the only ones this happens to.
I can so relate to this! I studied Spanish all 4 years of high school, did a Spanish minor in college, and studied abroad in Spain. I also had a tandem partner from Spain for awhile when I first came to Germany. So when I started my German class, Spanish words just kept coming out. Eventually I was so immersed in the German that it sort of switched, and when I tried to have a conversation in Spanish with one of my Spanish-speaking classmates, German words would start creeping out instead. But I still have phrases in my head that I only know in Spanish, not German, and they sneak out sometimes. The language section of my brain is all a mess!
I hear you. They are all starting to become jumbled. Vocab, verbs, pronunciation, grammar, it’s all becoming mixed up 🙂 I definitely want to learn German, but I know that will take some dedication and time (plus staying put for a while).
Too funny. I’ve done the exact same thing with Spanish – even talking to my own family in English, I’ll say “si” for yes.
We do the same Barbara, except most of the time it’s a way for Dalene and I to communicate with each other without them knowing what we’re saying 🙂
All normal I think. Frustrating and funny at the same time. We hadn’t left Turkey for a few years until last year when we went to see a friend in Italy. Ohhhh how good we were with our Italian greetings…until we walked away and suddenly realised our very basic Italian was in fact interspersed with Turkish words. Maybe it’s age… 😉
Julia
Harika! I’m certain we’ve done the same and not even realized it…
Haha, I do this, too! But with German and Spanish. I minored in German in college, and took a few years of Spanish in high school. I barely remember any of either language, and whenever I try to come up with a sentence or phrase in my head in one language, words from the other seem to always fill in blanks that I can’t remember.
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I’m starting to think we’re quite normal now as it appears many people do the same. I think what is good is that we are all at least trying to speak the language of the country, and even if we make mistakes, we learn. I personally love languages and want to learn all of them!!
Ha! I’m the same way.
I was doing this in Croatia a lot last summer. It’s almost impossible to stop it from happening! It even happens when I go home to Britain after six months of mindlessly answering shop assistants/bus drivers in Spanish. Totally natural I think…
‘Spankish’ is a much better name for it by the way.
That’s funny! Spanish is the only other language I know as well. If English does not work, I may resort to that language. I have never been to Turkey, but I imagine immersion is the best way to learn. =)
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