Confusions When Exposed to Different Languages

One problem that often happens to people who stay in foreign countries is forgetting their native languages. Today, I was writing a postcard to my family in Japan as we traditionally exchange New Year greeting cards in Japan. However, the problem I faced was, I had to stop my pencil so many times to look up Kanji (Chinese characters we use in Japanese) that I have forgotten. It was so embarrassing because the Kanji I looked up were often very elementary. I think this is kind of like spelling in English, where you can read a word with no problem at all but sometimes forget the correct spelling.

Another interesting phenomenon that I noticed was that I sometimes get confused and cannot tell if I'm speaking or listening to either Japanese or English. This happens especially when I meet with people who only can understand Japanese and people who only can understand English at the same time like when I translate for them. This is a very interesting feeling as I realize that my brain becomes really confused.

This confusion happens also when I see films in English, which contain scenes where Japanese is spoken, like "Lost in Translation". I do not usually realize that Japanese is spoken in such scenes until my friend asks me "what did he say?". Pretty interesting, isn't it? I think (and I hope) that this means that my English has improved quite well. The only thing is, this happens only when I'm exposed to American English. This could be because I still have a difficulty capturing all the words spoken in British English. Therefore, maybe if I start experiencing this phenomenon when exposed to British English, that would be the time when I can say I have become use to it :)