Hi there, come va? Sei uscito last night? Have you already asa gohan tabeta or do you want to go and dokka de grab a coffee? I’ve not eaten yet so maybe we can grab a bite to eat at that place that’s sugu soko?

Not that I go as far as mixing three languages in a single conversation, but code switching is and always has been an integral part of my life as a halfie. Code switching is used to describe the act of using two or more languages within a conversation. Multilingual people tend to find themselves hopping between their languages when speaking to anyone sharing the same language combination. I’m sure for many people, especially in the US, the term Spanglish will ring a bell. Well, Japlish, Frenchtalian, Chindeutsch and Korgolian may be less catchy, but they’re all feasible combinations that probably mesh into each other more easily than you could possibly imagine as non-native speakers of any of those languages.

When someone asks me how to explain how code switching works, I often describe it as having an expansion pack on your mental language programme. While one language is usually the MVP of any communicative engagement, you have a bench on which you keep your subs, just in case your MVP has a wobbly moment or is completely and utterly defeated by cotton mouth syndrome. That’s how multilingual people end up being able to switch between one language and another; the languages are basically intertwined in their brains, they just have to throw out whichever one comes to them first and when that fails to function properly, they can dip into their other one for some help.

The strangest thing for people to get their head rounds is that it isn’t always just single words. For example, in the mini paragraph above I wrote, “have you already asa gohan tabeta?” Asa gohan tabeta is Japanese for eaten breakfast. Despite Japanese and English grammar being very different in structure (English uses SVO structure while Japanese is based on the SOV structure), they can come together quite comfortably as long as the speaker knows each language inside out.

That’s not to say that code switching only happens when you forget a word or phrase in one language or if your brain is running more effectively on one language mode than the other. It’s also a matter of choice. There are often words and phrases that we find ourselves becoming attached to and reliant on when trying to express a certain idea and it can be most frustrating to find that it doesn’t translate well into your other language(s). The joy of speaking to someone with the same language combination is that you can switch over at any point for the purpose of emphasizing something that can only be expressed in the second language. The anti-joy of getting used to being able to do this is that sometimes you feel like you’re forced to settle for a different word because it only exists in one language and not the other. There’s absolutely no point in trying to explain the essence of these non-migrating words, it’s best to stick to a close alternative; this I have learnt with experience.

The whole phenomenon of code switching probably develops as a result of bilingual people being raised around two language (or more) at the same time. It’s not easy for a three year old to grasp the concept of having to separate “banana tabetai” from “I want a banana” when all they care about is getting their mitts on the banana in question. I recall being kept in during lunch breaks at my new school in the UK when I was 6 and fresh back from Italy; I always thought I was an especially clever student, but alas, I was recently informed that I was the class freak spouting out half Italian half English sentences at my poor confused 6 year old peers. It all comes together at some point and you realize that your situation is not the norm, that not everyone is able to express themselves in more than one language. You appreciate this gift you’ve been given and you seek out those you can share it with.

I’m sure fellow bilinguals will agree with me when I say that there is a special understanding between people who bond over language combinations; the bond is especially stronger when you share a minority cultural background too. It’s not that we feel we belong to a special club, but most likely we have had to deal with not quite fitting into both countries, so we form a small subconscious commune of our own. The only problem with these little societies is that it is rather easy to get carried away and forget if there is a non-bilingual person present, especially in a social context. The irony is that it’s also easy to leave non-bilingual people out just the way we often feel we are left out from a cultural point of view. It just goes to show people place a great deal of emphasis on cultural points of reference when forming relationships and language is usually the common cultural denominator for inbetweeners like us.

One thing you really have to be careful about is being aware of whether those around you can understand you or not. Just because someone looks non-Brazilian, it doesn’t mean they won’t understand you talking about them in Portuguese. I myself have been surprised by distinctly non-Japanese looking people approaching me in Japanese and I know that most Japanese people are nonplussed when they hear Japanese words pouring out of my mouth. You never know who can understand you, so my advice is: don’t use language as a way to climb onto that high horse, let’s be humble about it and speak as though anyone could be listening. At least when in public.