I fully sympathise. After 14 years in France, my use of the English language can be a little, shall we say, inventive. And sometimes I get to the middle of a sentence and think "Oh, crap - I've no idea how this sentence is going to end!"

In a sense these are good signs, indicating full integration into the French context, but it can be worrying when you start to lose your mother tongue (or is that 'maternal language'?)
Iain | Homepage | 11.16.06 - 8:15 am | #

Just make sure you don't go the way A Year in the Merde's Jake did...
That being said, I remember coming back from Scotland after the Eric Cantona Man United v. Crystal Palace incident and retelling it to my parents, going "il a karaté-coup-de-piéyé un supporter", not noticing at all what was wrong with that sentence...
anne | Homepage | 11.16.06 - 8:59 am | #

It doesn't show on the blog, if that's any consolation.
Zinnia Cyclamen | Homepage | 11.16.06 - 9:26 am | #

Iain - I'll keep focusing on the good signs then...

Anne - I see nothing wrong with that sentence, and I'm sure Eric wouldn't either. Maybe he'd even turn it into a poem.

Zin - You are far too kind. My mum has threatened to take a red pen to my blog. That's what comes of having an English teacher as a mother.
oiseau | Homepage | 11.16.06 - 11:06 am | #

This makes me laugh. I was only in the CZ for two years but my English certainly deteriorated (in addition to becoming a terrible mishmash of British and American dialect given how much the British outnumbered the few folks from the U.S.) In my opinion, hot wine is fine. It hardly counts compared to using the wrong preposition or the wrong tense.
ambika | Homepage | 11.16.06 - 2:46 pm | #

Yep - I can relate. After a few glasses of wine, I switch to my very own language, a weird mix of French with English words, or English with French words without even noticing. At least I understand what I'm saying, even if no one else does!
Colour | Homepage | 11.24.06 - 5:00 pm | #

Whenever I return to the States after months in France, I bump into someone and say, "Pardon" like I'm still in France. I've totally lost any spanish I once knew. I wish my French were fluent enough that my English was bad but, there you go.
Linda | Homepage | 11.25.06 - 9:28 pm | #

oh, do you really think the French English teacher sees the difference? hot wine is just ok. Relax
Mezzanotte | 12.04.06 - 6:16 am | #

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Corbin | Homepage | 02.03.07 - 4:16 am | #