[totetsu]

There is something similar that I experienced by learning a second language through exposure and not doing much precision based practice. Having words that you can understand when you hear but can’t use yourself is one thing, but when you start speaking words (that are actually correct to what you want to say) that you don’t understand when hearing yourself it’s quite disorientating.

[birdsongs]

Wow, thank you! This is really validating for such an odd experience.

That happened (and still does) with my second language, absorbed mostly through immersion/native exposure on a day-to-day basis.

When I go into that language mode and am having a conversation, my brain can pick a word and speak it, and I have no idea where I learned it, or even if it was correct? It will immediately sound strange and "unknown" to me. I would struggle to define the word, and if it was spoken to me I probably wouldn't understand it. It just felt correct to fit it there in the conversation.

Then I google translate it and find out "huh, yeah, that was actually correct and completely appropriate in that context".

It's so strange.

[reactordev]

The movie Bedazzled with Brendan Fraser has a scene where he wishes he was rich and powerful and wakes up as a Colombian drug lord.

When his butler asks him a question he says “Pardon, no hablo espanol. Uno momento! Mucho hablo espanol!”

It’s similar to that. You surprise yourself all the time.