Hatunen writes:
> More mistakes than whom?
Than monolingual speakers of either language.
> And I presume you have something other than your intuition to
> support the claim.
I'm sure that I have just as much as you have.
> On the other hand, when I lived in Montreal it alway amused me to
> be in a store like an auto parts store and listien to a customer
> talking to the clerk. They would go on in French, and when one
> came to a word they weren't sure of in French they would, without
> a beat, switch to English, then bakc to French, usw. I sometimes
> see the same sort of thing here in Tucson with Spanish and
> English.
Why does this amuse you? Code-switching is not at all unusual in multilingual
individuals, nor is it surprising, given that speaking multiple languages is
really just equivalent to speaking a single metalanguage.
> I don't see these convenient switches in language as "mistakes".
They are deficits, which would not exist in monolingual speakers. But
bilinguals also make real mistakes.
> I see them as "communication".
Code-switching is not communication when the other party is monolingual. |