November 26, 2006

La Gringa's language problem



Not speaking Spanish very well is a problem. But now I have an even worse problem.

Is it possible to forget your own language? Although El Jefe and I speak English together, I find myself forgetting English words! Sometimes I look at a word and I honestly have to stop to think if it is English or Spanish or both.

Sometimes I have to put a Spanish word in the Word Reference translator to tell me what the English word is. And I don't mean because I don't know the Spanish word. I do − I just can't remember the word in English. It's plenty scary, especially since my Spanish isn't good enough to take over.

This word is an example: tibia. (Yeah, yeah, I know it's a bone in English) It means lukewarm in Spanish and I swear I thought it was the same word in English. I had to look it up to remember that 'tepid' is the word of which I was thinking.

I know there are a lot of expatriates out there. Does this happen to anyone else? Or am I having early onset Alzheimer's?
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