After a long long while of recording in a language, my brain tends to
pick up on certain sounds. I can't say words, but sounds and their
meaning. By watching 2 people converse long enough, you pick it up.
For example, if after hearing 2 people converse and I hear the phrase
"tiap, moolmool" and then the English speaker turns to me and says "can
you replay that last part?" ... my brain associates those sounds, with a
request for me to replay.
So I tend to be ready to replay as soon as the English speaker asks me
too.... and then after a while, a kind of short hand develops such that
he turns to me, lifts an eyebrow, and I know to replay.
That's how my brain works, it speeds everything up, and the funny thing
is, we all work together well even though I have no understanding of the
language.... after a while, they tend to forget I don't know the
language and speak to me in their heart language which I don't understand.
At which point I say 'uh.....what?'
Usually.
Then for weeks afterwards, I go around speaking in that language, just
sounds, they stick in your head because after recording an entire New
Testament, you hear the phrases repeatedly. Like "Verily Verily" ..
stuff like that.
Today though, something happened that tickled me so much that I broke my
normal quiet composure while recording and laughed so hard we had to do
retake.
The reader said something in his language, and then I responded 'yes' in
his language, and then did what he asked me to do.
IT didn't dawn on me for like 30 seconds that I had just conversed with
him in his own language, nor him.... but we had just had a complete
tok-ples (heart language) short conversation that amounted to:
"I made a mistake, can you go back to the part that starts 'moolmool'
and replay it and then re-record it?"
and I replied
"This part here? yes, ready go"
and we began re-recording until I realized what had just happened and
started laughing.
I still don't know the language, but somehow, my brain knew what he
wanted....
If you've ever seen the 13th Warrior with Antonia Banderas... there is
this point in which he is sitting at the campfire listening the Vikings
speak their foreign language and he suddenly picks it up.
I have wanted that gift for many many years, just to be nearly
instantaneously able to understand foreign tongues.. But it doesn't work
that way. It takes time, and effort, and I admire multi-lingual people
immensely, because it means they put time in.
It was a fluke for me, and it made us all chuckle quite a bit.
