My parents came to the U.S. unable to speak English. My mother had learned some French as a schoolgirl, but hadn't used it.

After my parents had been in the U.S. for quite a while, I noticed that they were commonly mixing the two languages and possibly unaware they were doing that. As it was my responsibility, having learned useable English within just a few weeks after coming here (it's frighteningly easy for young kids in school to learn without any "help.") to correct their grammar and syntax whenever I was aware of an error, but I didn't know what to do with this "mixing" of the two languages, nor was I always conscious of it, as it was so common at home.

After somewhat less than a decade, this "mixing" subsided.

My father never learned some very noticeable things. He often used words that were similar to what he meant, but used the wrong form because it was similar (this instead of these, etc.)to the same word in German. Oddly enough, when my father died, my mother began making some of the same errors. Of course, I don't correct her any longer, but I do occasionally tease her about it when she does it, reminding her of who gave her the habit.

RE