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Q: Suddenly forgetting English?
Anyone ever get into a conversation with a friend or acquaintance that speaks perfect English, but they say something stupid. Maybe involving "culture" or politics or just social interactions. You rebuttal and then they say something like, "oh I cannot express this in English". Is it because their way to argue is to just speak louder than the other person?
10 years 43 weeks ago in Relationships - China
If their English really is that good, then it is a cop-out. You got them by the "short and curlies" and they cannot think of anything to refute you with.
If their English is not that good, they may be telling you the truth.
This happens to me sometimes. Due to the fact I think I speak 7th or 8th grade level English here (meaning, I feel I only use about 25% of my vocabulary). I’ve forgotten a few times how to express complicated things with simplified English. I just cannot think of a simple way to explain “how can cultural indifferences, bringing about social injustices”(just to give an example).
Or it can very well be as guilin stated...
Once I could not think for the life of me the word airport could say it in Chinese but not English , had to ask the wife 
i speak fluent chinglish, and my vocab has been cut in half
When I was living down south and was speaking Chinese on a daily basis, I did begin to forget certain English terms. During my first visit back home friends commented on my "child-like" sounding English. I screamed and cried and run away back to China to prove them wrong.
What i like is when local friends can't think of the exact word, but use other english words strung together to get the idea across. One said he liked using a 'picture machine' when out at the weekend. I knew exaclty what he meant.
Although when another friend who described a woman as 'carrying a package' I had to think for a couple of seconds before understanding!
but it was very imaginative use of langauge and made us laugh!!
GuilinRaf:
I must admit that I am guilty of the very same thing when speaking Chinese. Instead of saying "zhao xiang ji" (Camera) I used to say "zhao piang ji" (photograph machine).
sorrel:
good guess !! I always enjoy the creative use of English i hear
sorrel:
I also like using this as a game. Describe something without using the target word. It can be fun and some students enjoy it.
a friend of mine says "I am in China to learn people to speak proper" 
!
Me and my friends in Beijing often spoke this mix of French and English (sprinkled with a few Chinese words sometimes), and I would speak Chinese only with my ex, so while my English and Chinese improved, my French went down the drain after 6 years. There are so many basic words that I had completely forgotten.
Literature was my strongest attribute in school, and the French language was kneeling before me, but when I came back to France after China, I had a hard time expressing myself, and probably looked illiterate. It still happens once in a while.
