Did you ever hear the story of the twins, code-switching and code-mixing? Well, I will tell you. They have a very very big problem. They were so similar to each other that nobody could distinguish them. Not even their mother. In addition, sometimes they also got confused which is one and which is the other. One day their mother has decided to solve this problem. That’s why she sent them to a linguist.

The twins introduced themselves but they were so confused that they didn’t remember their names any more.

One of them started the introduction:

‘I am confused. My mother speaks one language, my father speaks another one. When I was child, I mixed elements of these two languages. I went through a long period in which I was borrowing elements from one language to another without being aware of what I was doing. I was producing expressions by combining elements of both languages and putting them into the same sentence. I was doing this because sometimes I didn’t know the right word in one language while I remembered it in the other language. I don’t do it consciously. I think, I speak my mother’s language better than my father’s language’

The other brother introduced himself too:

‘I am also confused. I also live in bilingual situations as our parents are the same. I speak both languages very well. I put elements from the other language while I am with my friends. We have some special words to express special concepts and it’s cool to use them between us instead of the standard versions. So, I do it consciously. It can happen that I don’t have the right term in one language and that’s why I prefer to use a term from the other language, but usually I do it in technical situations. As you can see, I am a very conscious person unlike my brother. This is our main difference.’

Which one is code-switching and which one is code-mixing? Write your answer in the comments.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my channel to stay updated about the new challenges on linguistic topics.