Noticing your mother tongue

One of the things that always - jumps out at me, surprises me, that always makes me stop me about living in a country where the language spoken is not my first is how I always notice my first language. Like how you suddenly notice when someone says your name. I always notice English being spoken. A parent using it with their children, people slipping in occasional words into their conversation*. As well, the written word too. I guess that it jumps out less because it’s everywhere.

Which brings me to this card we got from Starbucks. Just enough English to notice but not enough to glean much from it at all.

*People I know who are very comfortable using 2 or more languages are the worst for this, especially when talking to someone else who is the same. you know what I mean?