This slow but sure language transition over the past few months has actually given me a really unique opportunity to see my native language from an outside perspective, to really look objectively at the structure of the language, and to question why we say things the way that we do. Seeing English this way has been really fascinating, and has actually led to a couple of bizarre moments when I've realized that the way we construct phrases and sentences is actually rather illogical at times (Why do we say "make a speech" instead of "do a speech"? Why can "I would" speak about something in the past or in the future (as in "I would have done it yesterday if I had known" and "I would love to go to the movies tomorrow)? Why on earth do we tack seemingly random prepositions onto the ends of verbs- as in, mess UP, write DOWN, talk someone INTO something, etc.). Speaking from a grammatical perspective, English is kind of a funky language because it has Anglo-Saxon (Germanic) roots, but has taken a significant amount of its vocabulary and some of its syntax from Latin and the modern Romance languages, making it a sort of hybrid language that, frankly, doesn't really bother to follow its own rules.
Another interesting part of this whole language transition has been noticing which factors I have to pay attention to when speaking French versus what I have to pay attention to when speaking English. Genders have been a big part of this. To talk about possession in English, it's important to know the gender of the owner, while in French, the owner's gender makes no difference (i.e. In English we make the distinction between "his books" and "her books," while in French, both would be translated as "ses livres"). On the other hand, speaking French means I have to keep in mind the genders of nouns to construct grammatically correct sentences (to continue the same example, English speakers keep the possessive adjective "his" to talk about "his book" and "his car," whereas the French change the adjective to agree with the gender of the noun: "son livre" and "sa voiture" respectively.)
Aside from simply grammatical differences in the two languages, speaking French has also forced me to adopt something of a second personality. It's not terribly different from my personality in English, so I guess it's not really as if there's a distinct "French Emma," but even so, my manners of speech and behavior are quite a bit different in French. First of all, I have much less of a filter when it comes to showing emotion. That might be partially because being away from home has made me, well, a little more emotionally volatile. But even when listening to other people speak to me, I'll often mimic their facial expressions (sometimes without realizing it) and have noticeable, physical reactions when they tell me something sad, exciting, confusing, etc. to show that I'm listening and that I understand. My sense of humor is also a bit different in French. When telling jokes or funny stories, I tend to speak with a lot of gestures, and make appropriate facial expressions to clarify what's going on. I also have to tell stories like these more slowly, since, if I go too fast and/or start to laugh, my accent kicks in big time and I can be really difficult to understand.
I'm definitely of the opinion that speaking a second language can alter the way one thinks and behaves, not necessarily making the speaker different than they were in their native language; perhaps a foreign language just forces me to express another side of myself. That being said, I'm really happy that I've progressed in French the way I have, if only to have a personality in French. In my first few weeks here, my French was largely practical: asking questions, explaining things that were different for me, letting people know how I was doing, etc. Now, I've finally reached a point where I'm not just capable of communicating in French, but also chatting in French, debating in French, complaining about homework, making plans for the weekend, having philosophical conversations, and truly living in my second language. I've been working toward bilingualism for a long time now; now, I know that it's all been worth it.
If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.
Nelson Mandela
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/n/nelson_mandela.html#MXRobMm81bpiQ4WV.99If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart."If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to a man in his language, that goes to his heart." ~Nelson Mandela
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/n/nelsonmand121685.html#KaWGWxol2D4UcKSr.99
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