I’m Speaking so Much Finnish, My English Is Regressing
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“May I have a double shot cappuccino and a chocolate croissant?”
“Sorry, what?”
I enunciate more, and the barista finally understands me. I’m here with my laptop for a 90 minute online Finnish speaking lesson. It’s morning in Los Angeles and late evening in Helsinki. Surprisingly, my Finnish teacher has no issues understanding me, even though I’m not quite intermediate yet.
How can I be more easily understood in Finnish than in English?
The awkward English speaking interactions continue at my restaurant job:
“Is there a place I can put this silverware tray when it all fills up?”
“What?”
As soon as I started booking 7 hours of Finnish speaking lessons per week, my English speaking ability started regressing quickly.
My longest lessons are 3 hours of Finnish speaking in one sitting. Even in the highly social nature of my previous architecture offices, it would be rare to speak 3 hours of English in one sitting. In long meetings, it’s usually the client who talks. Architectural home remodels are something like therapy to the clients.
No, I’m not in Finland but living in Los Angeles. I moved here alone, and quickly got a restaurant job where my coworkers are mostly Spanish speaking. Even though I don’t speak Spanish yet, I understand the instructions they give me in Spanish.
English has gone to the back burner. It is barely needed.
Maybe this is a warning sign from the universe about what would happen if I were to pursue another language. No, I’m not worried about anything happening to my native English speaking ability. But this is what would happen if I were to “take a break” from Finnish to pursue another language.
My Finnish would go into regression much faster than my English.
I’m making that final push to intermediate level Finnish speaking. A conservative estimate puts me 3–5 months away from B1 level Finnish continuing with 7 hours of speaking per week.
Breaching B1 for a difficult language outside of a target language environment requires a sociopathic level of effort.
This is one of those happy accidents of language learning, where my brain thinks I’m in a target language environment, even though a map says I’m not.
Much of my inner monologue is in Finnish, except when I’m writing. But the second I publish this article and go out to the street to get some lunch, Finnish thoughts will start streaming through my brain again. It’s a bit annoying (vähän ärsyttävää), but I predict it will be less annoying when my Finnish thoughts get more advanced.
Many seasoned language learners say they mix their thoughts in multiple languages. This will take some getting used to.
