Lucía Ringuelet
While lately I have been trying to be more flexible, I have always had a clear tendency towards a “monolithic” type of interaction, or “double monolingualism” (Rymes, 2014, p. 5). My family immigrated from Argentina to Canada when my brother was 15 years old and I 12. From the moment we arrived, both my brother and I refused to speak in a language other than Spanish in our home, with our parents and among ourselves. I believe this can sound odd, as it is usually the parents who adopt that stance, seeking to protect the development of the mother tongue. Instead, my mother wanted to practice French with us, but we refused. Code-switching was almost taboo a for us. We wanted to speak “proper” Spanish. To be honest, I am not sure where this strict distinction came from at such a young age. It was certainly more emotional than rational.
Today, as an adult and from a rational point of view, I can find good reasons for it. In fact, I am happy we did it that way. It allowed my brother and particularly I, being the youngest, to maintain a good mastery of our mother tongue. The avoidance of code-switching to mix French in our Spanish has lent us to practice a wider range of vocabulary in the latter language. When I go back to Argentina or I speak with other Hispanic individuals whose repertoire does not include French or English, I am much more confident in my abilities to express myself solely in Spanish.
To avoid code-switching is an effort. It works out your brain, making you look for translations, sometimes for a long time. Sometimes these translations are straight-forward, but sometimes they are not. For instance:
- barato (sp) / pas cher? (fr)
- cariño (sp) / affection, amour, tendresse? (fr)
Other words have a clearer translation, but are not used in a language with the same frequency or in the same contexts than on the other. For instance:
- découragé (fr) / desalentado (sp) / desmotivado (sp)/ descorazonado (sp)
Last but not least, there are the so-called “false-friends.” For instance:
- excité (fr) / excitado (sp) / entusiasmado (sp)
The reality is that code-switching is extremely easy for multilinguals. Personally, I think it is important to be aware of its use and to consciously decide to practice it or not, and even more importantly when. I do still tend to steer away from it in my French vs Spanish context. I think it has been beneficial for me in developing a good competency in each language, and I want to continue in that path. That said, I do practice a fair amount of code-switching when I speak in French, borrowing words, expressions, or even whole sentences, from English. Occasionally, when my English interlocutor understands French, I will also borrow from French when speaking in English. I believe I do not need to “protect” these languages, given their omnipresence in my life in Montreal.
Your turn! I know this can be a somehow controversial subject…
How much and when do you practice code-switching?
What are the positive and/or negative outcomes you see in code-switching?
What are your views on code-switching or avoidance of code-switching in young language learners as opposed to adult ones?
References
Rymes, B. (2014). Communicative repertoire. In C. Leung & B. Street (Eds.), Handbook of English Language Studies (pp. 287-301). New York, NY: Routledge.
Lucía, have you come across the term “translanguaging”? It provides an interestingly different lens through which to view the language-mixing phenomenon. I will try to remember to bring it up in class…
I remember when I was young, they always told me not to code switch because it is a sign that you are not mastering either of languages that you are code-switching from. Like other linguist mention, I believe that code-switching can be beneficial, and it is a sign of mastering language. I code switch a lot when I speak to people that I know are able to speak French and English. I sometimes find myself code switching when I speak to my friends and family in New York City that speaks French English and Creole. A lot of time I code switch when I found it hard to find the appropriate translation for a word, or a sentence.