[CogitoCogito]

> Problem arise when there is no boundary in how which languages need to be used. Sometimes the brain feels like a piece of furniture full of drawers. I speak 4 languages and understand well 6 but when my mexican speaking partner ask me something in spanish right after a teams meeting in english I sometimes answer to her in english because my brain didn't have time to close the english drawer and open the spanish one. Same when we are at dinner and me and my daughters speak in spanish although we're all french but talk about what happened that day, which happened in spanish. At lease that is how I visualize it.

Is that really a problem though? It's true that sometimes I can't find the right words in a certain language, but have the perfect words in another. But so what? I mean I know many people who only speak a single language that know exactly what they'd like to say, but can't quite find the right words. Is it really that different?

Personally I find the fact that two people can have a conversation in two separate languages and that they can understand each other great. I mean would it be better to both stick to the same language even if one of you has more trouble speaking it? What exactly is the advantage to that?

Anyway I might be reading too much into your post, but I often hear many similar worries of people when it comes to speaking multiple languages and think often they are overthinking it. You're likely to be stronger in some languages rather than others. You're also likely to be better and listening to some languages rather than speaking them. These factors will also change due to context (what language is spoken around you, whether you're tired, etc.). To me these aren't problems. These are just the limitations of our brains and it's all just fine.

[prmoustache]

I didn't mean it as a problem but as an illustration on how our brain can struggle switching contexts. It is funny because it is exacerbated at night when you are tired.

[CogitoCogito]

Yeah that’s totally normal. I don’t speak much German or Spanish anymore (which is too bad), but that doesn't keep me from responding to German/Spanish with English/Swedish when speaking to them. I think there’s something kind of nice about two people speaking different languages and having no problems understanding each other.

Anyway I only bring this all up because I’ve met so many people worried about confusing their kids with multiple languages. The fact is they _will_ be confused and that is _fine_. Besides kids lack an enormous amount of vocabulary in their language even if they’re monolingual and they do just fine. Parents tend to more worried about this than kids.