When I lived in Mexico (between the ages of 20 and 31), completely immersed in Spanish, I thought in Spanish and even dreamed in Spanish. If I was living in a border town, I spoke Spanglish to those who were bilingual. At times, while speaking to my family by phone or on my visits home in the summers, I would sometimes search for the word I wanted in English, my first language. I could easily think of the word I wanted in Spanish, but struggled for the English equivalent. There were certain concepts that had a single word in Spanish but required a paragraph to explain in English and vice versa. That's what I loved about Spanglish. You pick and choose from whichever more completely describes what you want to say. I tend to think of myself having an internal translator. Most of the time it is running smoothly in the background but at times it becomes unstable and I am an unwilling victim of the blue screen of death in the mind!
Rebooting is the only solution, but by then, it's a little late to save me.
