I visited the research presentation of our graduating French student who wrote a paper on Michel Houellebecq’s Anéantir. Yes, we offer a very well-rounded education. But the point is that I understood everything. The talk, the questions, the discussion. Everything. But the moment I tried to say something, and I even prepared the sentences in my head, what came out was in Spanish.
It’s very frustrating.
“what came out was in Spanish”
I sympathize… once speaking to a Spanish speaker in Poland (who’s still here)… Polish kept coming out instead of Spanish (the person in question had very limited Polish at the time but is a lot more fluent now).
The peak was “Está muy daleko de aqui…… ¡lejos! quería decir ‘muy lejos’…. (I was rewarded with a look that suggested I was a crazy person who was being humored… not recommended).
Don’t get me started on German and Polish… where during my first stay in Poland I kept answering the few questions I understood with ‘me, me, me’ (ja ja!) and once on a German platform I kept answering with ‘hi!’
German conductor: Go to platform 6.
Me: Tak, tak (sounds like German Tag! Tag! = hi)
This was on the border (Frankfurt an der Oder) and he clearly thought I was Polish and was indulgent and did everything but pat my head…. it stung but I realized I deserved it).
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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