CODE-SWITCHING: Jumping Between 2 Different Languages

This video is all about the linguistic phenomenon called code-switching, switching between different languages while speaking.

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*Music*

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Outro music: "Ever Felt Pt. 1" by Otis McDonald.

[Omnifarious]

I usually code switch because I can't recall the word I need at that given time with the language I'm speaking so I use the word in another language and then continue normally with the language I started with.

[luthfilinrussian]

The craziest thing about being bilingual is when you remember a word in your second language but not in your native language. It really hurts haha

[sofiavaldez]

I'm Filipino, born and raised in the Philippines, and I highly agree with this. On another note, we also apply the rules of Filipino grammar when embedding an English word. For example, "ita-try ko" means I will try. The prefix "i-" indicates that the subject is the one doing the verb, and since this is in future tense, we also repeat usually the first syllable or whatever the first syllable sounds like (in this case just "ta or tuh" and not TRY itself bc it gets awkward when you double the "try", it'll sound like try-try), and then add the base form of verb which is "try" therefore, it is ita-try (it sounds like that when speaking the language). ko = me.




WHEREAS, if this was a pure Tagalog word, it would be "susubukan ko" where subok (meaning "try") is the base form of verb, and to make it in future tense we repeat "su" w/c is the first syllable of subok, and then add the base form, we also add the suffix "-an" just indicates that a person is gonna do something to someone or something else.

[EoPatrux]

Japanese music uses Code-Switching all the time

[DutchGuyInChina]

In the Netherlands, people often code-switch to English when they can't find a fitting Dutch word or sentence quick enough. Sometimes we don't even know a good Dutch equivalent. This is because we are pretty much surrounded by English everyday. For some situations we learn new words/sentences in English (for example from movies or TV shows) that we didn't learn in Dutch before, because we hadn't experienced a situation like that in Dutch before. Sometimes we even just use English sentences because we hear them more often and are more used to it.

Some people find it extremely annoying when somebody code-switches to English, but it's very easy to accidentally do it anyway. I think it's better if someone is able to express himself fully in Dutch, but I can't blame others because I can't do it myself either... xD Only in formal conversations I avoid code-switching as much as possible.

Another reason I code-switch myself is my field of study. For my study (Computer Science) I often only learn the English terms and not the Dutch ones (if the even exist), which makes me code-switch whenever I need to use those terms.

[Mafl]

My first language is Hebrew but my parents come from the Soviet Union, so they mostly speak Russian at home. We have really weird conversations overall, in most cases they speak to me in Russian and I answer in Hebrew and we both understand each other completely, in other cases (especially in emotional situations), we could start talking in a Hebrew-Russian mishmash where a Hebrew word would be followed by a Russian word and so on in a random incoherent order. I think it's really interesting to see from a third person perspective.

[keithsogge]

When I finally find the keys to my Kia Spectra I'll say: " A kia key aqui"

[joefromravenna]

Code switching = speech at speed of thought

My favorite code switching is to borrow English words and applying Slovak grammar rules to the words while speaking Slovak.

[airai]

So interesting!! I grew up in an Indian immigrant household in the UK, so there was much code-switching between 4 different languages: English, Gujarati, Hindi, and Marathi. English was mostly what me and my brother spoke and what my parents used to talk about school/work related subjects, Gujarati was used to talk about general household chores (in fact even I slip into it sometimes when talking about things like washing dishes "vasan dhowana" or folding laundry "capra ghadi karwana"), Hindi was used when talking to/about relatives or Bollywood movies, and Marathi was what my parents used as a "secret language" because neither my brother nor I could understand it much :P (since we learnt French at school though, we used that sometimes as our own secret language!)
We code-switch between WORDS sometimes, just for fun. Like, the Gujarati word for "fry" is something like "sekh" but sometimes me or my mum will say "sekhofy" even though it doesn't really make sense, and me and my brother add "bhai" ("bro") onto the end of basically everything, just because why not.

[EpreTroll]

Very interesting. This is actually something that I can relate to a lot. As a native Dutch speaker I often switch in between Dutch and English mostly when talking to friends but some words I use often. The word "like" is one of these. _Dit is _*_like_*_ echt _*_fucked up_*_, man. Ik vind wel dat je de deur dicht moet doen, _*_though_*_._ The poetic thing is also common. To make things funny we often switch to English or a different Dutch accent/dialect. Interesting video, keep it up Paul! :D

[OtakuArashi]

Not quite code-switching, but it's funny to see nonetheless. The people in my family who were born in Canada can understand Tagalog, but not speak it. The ones born in the Philippines and later came to Canada are fluent in English, but prefer to speak Tagalog. I've witnessed entire conversations where the two participants are each speaking and answering each other while speaking different languages.

[MrRyanSandberg]

I didn't know this had a term :-) such fun! When I lived in Switzerland, it was common to hear four languages in a single sentence!

[BalkanOdyssey_]

I'm 16, my mother language is Serbian and I speak English fluently besides some mediocre German that I'm currently intensively learning since I've moved to Germany. When I'm with my international friends we all change languages during a conversation very quickly, since we don't all speak the languages equally.We mainly speak English, with some of them I speak German and wit a couple of friends I speak Serbo/Croatian, so I pretty much switch between 3 languages in like 5 minutes and for some reason it doesn't confuse me at all. I've been doing it since I moved here to Germany every single, maybe it's just training.

[sabin]

0:48 Oh My Gosh... really? A CS:GO joke?

[Mrdachi]

This happens in Nigeria everyday! Sometimes you hear people switch between, traditional English, Pidgin English and a native language. Some of my Nigerian friends here in Mexico switch between, English, Spanish, Nigerian Pidgin and a native language.

[angeloriccellpiovischini]

Hey, Paul! First of all congratulations for this incredible linguistic corner you've created online. It's really awestruck the way you deal with all of that amount of information on languages. You're really a langlover. I am a faithful admirer of your channel. Terug-wak!

[unclepodger]

If non-Indians know Hindi, they should really watch 3 Idiots. Even if they don't, watch it anyway (maybe with subtitles, but a lot of play on words in Hindi gets lost.) It's such a good movie with a beautiful message.

[chrisg]

As a fluent non-native speaker of Mandarin, I encounter this every day working at a Chinese restaurant. Our boss will give commands in either language and switch very frequently. It depends on if the customers are in earshot or which staff members need to understand. It's actually strange how fluid the codeswitching really is.

[jackbails]

Some of the most impressive code switching I've heard was from bilingual millennials in Montreal. They just flutter back and forth between French and English without even noticing.

[canisjay]

Your portuguese has improved Paul, now it sounds like an italian, not an spanish. And that is very nice, finally someone got that Portuguese phonetics are much more similar to Italian than Spanish. Great video by the way!