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?
In: 4
Well, this is my answer as a French who lived in England for a year:
When I met other French people, we would speak French (except if there was someone who didn’t). We were all living in a hostel when we arrived. We don’t use the translation of hostel in French, because we don’t sleep in any in our country.
So basically, that means that we never used the term in our native language, and we only used in English. So when we talked between us, we would use the English term “hostel” out of habit. This is an exemple, but it happened a lot.
It also applies to multiple languages conversations. Sometimes a word in a language is more precise than another in another language. Or sometimes you have inside jokes about a term in a specific language.
Finally, let’s say I’m speaking English with an English guy that also speaks French. If i don’t know how to phrase something in English, then I’ll say it in French, knowing the person will get it.
Hope that answered your question!
Edit:typo and grammar
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