Why do multi-lingual people seemingly, with no reason, switch between languages while talking to someone who is also multi-lingual? What benefit does it have over staying with the language they started the conversation with?
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Not all languages are created equal. The vocabulary and grammar of each language lend themselves to some things better than others. Depending on the topic or concept that the person is trying to convey one language can be better to express it more easily and directly since there’s no real way to directly translate one language to another. To some degree you always have to take some liberties to make it make sense, and if you and the listener both know the other language, then it’s easier to just skip the translation part and speak in a way you’ll both understand anyways.
The topic or concept plays a large role. If I for example read an article about something in english it’s usually the case that Ι’ll have an easier time relaying that information to someone else in english also. When you truly know a language well, you don’t just directly translate your primary language into it and speak it, you think in it. So a lot of times when you’re thinking of something you may very well be thinking about it in the language you heard it in or simply because it’s more convenient for the particular subject.
It’s also something that happens absent mindedly because realistically not all languages have the same presence in the world around us. Most major media is in english, or maybe you buy something but the instruction manual doesn’t have your language and you need to know another, or you visit a website and it’s only available in one language, usually english, so for non native english speakers it’s very common that they have to use their english knowledge multiple times per day and this overall means that many of your more mundane conversations will probably switch through languages a lot since you’re constantly using both of those languages on a daily basis.
I’m not a native english speaker but honestly I think I speak, read or listen to english about as much if not more than my mother tongue daily.
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