For you wonderful people who speak more than one language...
Have you ever had a time where you've responded to someone by accident in another language... and unwittingly said something that turns out to be absolutely correct in the language the other person was (and you were supposed to be) speaking?
Ask anyone who knows more than one language and they can tell you of at least one time where they accidentally started speaking in another language mid-conversation, e.g. everyone is speaking English but you unintentionally blurt out something in French. But on very rare occasions, you might end up surprising yourself and everyone around you with that 'accident' being something perfect for the situation.
Here's my case...
I had just arrived in Buenos Aires 🇦🇷 after a 13-hour sleepless flight. It had been a while since I had spoken in Spanish, but whenever I do usually speak in a language other than English, it's almost exclusively in one of my working Slavic languages. I start speaking in Spanish with the taxi driver, he's chatty and as per usual I'm responding with 'yes, yes' to show I'm listening to him. However, instead of saying 'sí, sí' or 'bueno, OK' (as you do in Argentina), I come out with 'da, da' (yes, yes) as you would when speaking in my Slavic languages. I realise my mistake and think to myself 'this taxi driver must think I'm crazy'. But no, he starts talking faster in proper Rioplatense Spanish. As the conversation continues, I continue saying 'da, da'', only the more I do it the faster the driver speaks and now he's starting to use Spanish words I've never even heard of before. 'Now that was weird' was my impression once I arrived at my destination and thought nothing more of it.
However, later that day, by pure accident I see a Uruguayan had commented on social media in Spanish with '¡ta!'. I'd never seen this word before so I look it up and find out 'ta' comes from 'está' (he/she/it is) and in Rioplatense Spanish (especially in Uruguay) it means something like “ok” or “I got it!”.
Ding!💡 Lightbulb moment! The taxi driver must have thought I was from Uruguay as I was saying 'da, da' (sounding like 'ta, ta') perfectly as you would in normal Uruguayan Spanish conversation. That explains why the taxi driver didn't flinch, as someone not understanding what was said would do, and instead spoke full-on Rioplatense Spanish!
By the way, if you're interested, here's a video link on how to use 'ta' in Uruguayan Spanish.
¡Ta! 😄
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