mother tongues

[arimle.livejournal.com]

I was reading some of the posts on the last thread and it made me think about Slávka, who I mentioned in my last post. She was the first person I became aware of, because I was already somewhat aware of somebody else inside of me who spoke Czech.

There isn't anything toastery (this is another term I like very much) about this, it isn't as if suddenly I, who had no Czech connections whatsoever, rose up one morning and started gibbering in Czech. I understand just as much Czech as Sláva. I can translate probably better than she can, in fact. But only she can generate it. If she's not around, I have a very hard time speaking it at all -- even though I know the words and I know how to pronounce them.

She and I were born at the same time, I a little before her, (I've begun to think of us as sisters) in the same place, the library. I was born from the history books we read, and she was born from our Czech textbook. (Actually, I think that an amalgam of Sláva and me was around for a little bit when we were very young, but was gone by the time we started grade school -- it's a sort of in-system reincarnation, or something, I guess.) If there hadn't been a Slávka-seed somewhere inside, then we'd only have learnt Czech because we're language nerds, and we'd have gotten bored with it long ago; but the egg was fertilized and she was born.

So anyway, the whole point of this post is not just sort out my thoughts about mine and Slávka's genesis, but mostly to ask you how language affects your system.

Comments

Re: ok I must ask...

[sexylittleone.livejournal.com]

My language skills are inadequate. I struggle with english everyday...

I rely on my cores verbal skills & fluency to get me through most words. I grew up inside not talking for a very long time. an example of how I speak and think:

i not know what say u all ... language difficult for me. think picters not wurds... ppl not get that an i hhard unferstand for ppl round me...even inside. sighs this how think really if not use core skill. sad? or not?

you see my difficulty. and I'm a late teen not a little. This has posed tremendous problems at times ...and if I am stressed that is how I speak (we call it regressing but I do not know nother word for it.) Btw, my first language is french shrugs.
If you can call thinking in pictures a language then that is first. If I could communicate that way I would...but I can only projrect those to others inside. sigh.

We had until a few years ago, a non-verbal person... I comminicated quite well with her as I am not exactly language oriented either.

El