Sometimes when I've spent most of my day immersed in French, Russian or Ukrainian (via text, music, tv etc) I feel like my brain is having a tiny meltdown in my skull. I feel that at any moment it is entirely possible that liquified brain goo is going to start spilling about everywhere (sorry for the graphic image)...
How does one get past it? Does that feeling go away once you reach fluency, or does one's second, third, fourth language always feel uncomfortable and unfamiliar? What's your experience with it?
Ha, I personally enjoy when my brain is melting.
My personal experience is that after a really really long (decades) interaction with the language the stress of switching almost never appears, and might only happen after a considerably long disconnection time, and goes away soon after reconnection with the language.
Otherwise you really have to stay connected all the time, maybe on a daily basis, and the stress will still be with you even then, only that just like with regular physical excercise, it almost won’t be felt.
I think brain melting is wonderful since i am challenging myself to absorb as much as i can. I am learning russian and it is my third language.
I had a wonderful session with my informal tutor tonight. My brain was fried after 45 minutes - i made a LOT of progress.
