What do you think about code-switching?

[leosmith]

In the past I didn't like code-switching. I felt like it was a cop out if I used it, and I felt I was missing out on the real language if my L2 partner used it. Over time I improved at my languages and now I'm pretty ambivalent about it. But I have a big challenge to my code-switching tolerance coming up. I'm learning Tagalog, probably the most notorious code-switching language that I know of.

There are thousands of Spanish and English words that are officially part of the language, but that's not code-switching imo. I'm talking about Tagalog native speakers using English words and phrases instead of common Tagalog words and phrases in the middle of Tagalog conversations. It's amazing how often this happens. I will probably try to hang out with people who are poor at English for at least part of the time during my upcoming trip to the Philippines, and they might be hard to find.

Do you speak a language that code-switches a lot? Any tricks for dealing with it, or do you just go with the flow?

[tarvos]

When languages codeswitch, it's because they do... and because that's how people talk, that's what I end up doing. I can be annoyed at languages not being purist and sticking to their own guns, but if that's not what people do, and I want to communicate with them... then neither should I. And this doesn't bother me at all.

[leosmith]

I've heard Hindi and other Indian languages code-switch to English a lot too. I'm curious which major language is the master of English code-switching.

[IronMike]

Code-switching is one of the most interesting aspects of language and one of the many reasons I read linguistics texts for fun.

[emk]

Do you speak a language that code-switches a lot? Any tricks for dealing with it, or do you just go with the flow?

I tend to wrestle with this issue a lot when I'm in Montreal. Outside of Montreal, it's safe to say, "Hey, Quebec is a French-speaking province, so I can just speak French almost all the time." But Montreal—especially professional Montreal—is a truly bilingual city, and it appears to have its own etiquette for things.

Here's one example from an old article about custom service in Montreal:

Here then is a spectrum of greetings you are likely to encounter from staff in a Montreal shop, and what they mean:

• Bonjour - I am probably French mother tongue and I prefer to speak French. I might not speak English very well.
• Bonjour-Hi - I am perfectly bilingual and am happy to serve you in the language of your choice. Although I am probably from Quebec, I might not speak French as a first language.
• Allô! - “Allô” is a tricky one as it sounds a lot like “Hello.” Sometimes counter staff use it to be ambiguous and will serve you in the language in which you respond. Sometimes, however, they are unilingual francophones who are attempting to be informal. In fact, as “Allô” is only used when answering the phone in the rest of the French-speaking world, it took your correspondant about a year to work out that it wasn’t an heavily accented “hello”! Bonjour is almost always the best response to an Allô.
• No greeting - I am probably waiting for you to say Bonjour or Hi so I know which language you prefer (by the way, your editor considers this rude.) I am probably not French mother tongue.
• bonjour-HIII!! - I am stressing the “HI” because although I can serve you in French (and am required to by law), it is not my first language and I would rather serve you in English.
• Hi - I only speak English or I strongly prefer to speak English.

There's a general rule behind these conventions, and that rule is "Speak whatever language or combination of languages is least awkward." I absolutely run into people in Montreal who will switch to English with me—but in some cases, they're actually anglophones with extremely strong French, or they're bilinguals who speak English just as well as I do. Insisting on French in these cases would be rude. Or if a shopkeeper with terrible English is trying really hard to be friendly, I will play along, and have a bilingual conversation.

And of course, that's where things often end up, even for natives—I can't tell you how many bilingual conversations I've seen in streets or in shops, or even once in the hospital. This certainly seems to be prevalent in some of the upper-middle-class areas of the island, where effortless bilingualism is a point of pride, and insisting too strongly on one language is basically an admission that you need other people's help, or that you're just using them for language practice. But I imagine that it occurs in many other places as well.

So when I'm there, my goal isn't to speak as much French as possible, because that would be slightly weird and rude by local norms. Instead, I try to act like an anglophone who has spoken French at home for years, and who is perfectly happy to default to it in public places. I guess this is maybe a good rule of thumb: If a local culture has plenty of experience with bilingualism and code switching, then they've probably found solutions that work well for them. And it's really interesting to try to puzzle out those customs and try to follow them.

[zenmonkey]

I try to avoid it mid-sentence or when it is a single words because it is often just mental laziness on my part. It can be a sign of language weakness - if I find myself codeswitching it might be that I am tired, I'm rusty or lazy because in most of my languages it just isn't part of the common vernacular.
There are informal registers that code switch a lot at a word level, they are rarely part of my own culture so I don't fall into them easily.
Phrasal switching or subject switching I do a lot. Talking about computers with my father or uncle is mostly in English, even if our everyday is Spanish.

More thoughts on this but I need to work ...

[Ani]

I selected "love it", because truthfully it just makes me happy to be around people where it is even possible. I spent my high school and some of my college years around multi-lingual people, and then have been in a monolingual environment for a long time. That said, I agree with zenmonkey's idea that is not want to do it myself out of laziness or weakness in the language and I think it is definitely often a sign of that. I spent a lot of time in Montreal with native French speakers who had spent a lot of time around native English speakers and there were conversations where we all wondered if anyone could speak any language properly anymore. Fun but messy.

[Whodathunkitz]

Ok Lang.

Hindi problema ('No problem' I'm guessing at that! Cebuano would be way / walay problema).

From memory the cash machines in the Philippines have 'Taglish' as a real option.

It depends on where you go in the Philippines. Although Tagalog/Filipino/Taglish is the main language for 28%, cebuano/bisaya/binisaya is the main language for 20% and both are Lingua Franca's. Cebuano is more widely spoken especially in the southern islands.

Many people can understand Taglish from TV but don't speak it. A lot more books, TV, magazines in Tagalog (Taglish). My wife learnt English before Tagalog. Many cebuanos hated Tagalog as a subject at school.

Outside of Manila I'm told that there are places in the country / smaller towns where purer tagalog is spoken. I'll ask my wife. Maybe Batangas??

My cebuano is considered bukid or mountain/country as I learnt from Memrise / old bible and those Memrise courses are generally from language learners using the few old sources such as 1920s books which attempted to use purer Bisaya.

I'm on a phone so I can't look up your profile but assuming you know Spanish, just get used to the accent. Supposedly the spanish is heavily influenced by mexican and non castillians using Spanish as a second language as they were oppressed in Spain so sought freedom elsewhere (to behave badly by many accounts). So possibly some basque, Catalan accents, words or phrasing.

There's a bit more spanish in cebuano but you should notice lots of spanish with an accent (definitely a preference to my ears of a B instead of a V).

So for cebuano:-
Days of week, hours, teen / common numbers like trese, bayente, kinyentos (500).

Kada semana
Komusta (como estés)
Más barato (cheaper)

Food!
Leche flan
Adobo
Cerbeza negra

Instructions
Avante (getting us to crowd onto a bus)
Logar Lang (luego/place/then enough? Stop the jeepney!)
Sigue!


I learnt spanish from Cebuano so I have a bit of a problem speaking Spanish without cebuano erupting. But I can read spanish better than cebuano.

As for code switching... At a Filipino party in the UK, one small chat could involve cebuano, illonggo, tagalog, english using English, spanish, cebuano and Tagalog number systems. Pretty common when asking about family ages.

People might repeat things in 2 languages so all understand.

I normally get perplexed looks when I launch into cebuano on the wrong person. Often it's ok as they have a cebuano parent and can manage my simple cebuano.

In Mindanao and elsewhere it's not cebuano, it's bisaya and probably a safer term to use.

I spoke to one person in cebuano / spanish as she was a chavacanno speaker.

Anyone interested in languages might love the phillipines or it might just cure them! Of course there are the small Australasian hill tribe languages, old Chinese dialects.

By the way leosmith, your newish Korean might be useful as well. Lots of people have worked there. Lots of Korean tourists and soap operas and songs.

[leosmith]

By the way leosmith, your newish Korean might be useful as well. Lots of people have worked there. Lots of Korean tourists and soap operas and songs.

Nice post! Yeah, I was surprised because when I tried to find Hollywood movies dubbed in Tagalog on youtube I found a ton of Korean movies and dramas dubbed in Tagalog instead. That sort of defeats the purpose of doing that, so I'm watching Tagalog original movies instead. Of course they are at least 10% English, which helps a lot with comprehension.

[IronMike]

... not want to do it myself out of laziness or weakness in the language and I think it is definitely often a sign of that. ...

I think we need to make a distinction between code-switching and language transfer/language interference. When I switch from Russian to English in the midst of a Russian conversation, that is not code-switching but language interference, mostly due to my not being fluent in Russian. I can say the same when I krokodili ruse in my Esperanto speech with a bunch of Russophone Esperanto speakers here in Moscow. (Something I try to not do, but sometimes must when I'm missing a word and I know none of them speak English. "Amiko! Kiel oni diras плоский en Esperanto?")

When I've heard speakers code-switch it was speakers who were each fluent in two (or more!) languages, and the code would switch for certain topics, or when they were quoting someone speaking in that other language, or smthg like that. From what I could tell from the outside, the switch didn't even seem to be a deliberate choice, but spontaneous. And for some of these conversations, until I pointed out how interesting it was their code-switching, they hadn't even realized they'd done it.