I witnessed somebody go through a temporary form of this after brain surgery. They could converse relatively normally except were completely unable to make decisions.
They would talk about the bird songs from outside but being asked if they wanted a coffee would freeze. Thankfully they made a full recovery after a few months.
A note to writers, when a stroke or other brain injury victim relearns speech the worst comparison you can make is "speaking french" or "like Steffi Graf" because it's not an acquired foreign accent syndrome, it's a brain injury.
It's a speech impairment. They're relearning how to form words. Just because one culture forms a rhotic R one way and another culture forms it another way or even deprecates it doesn't make you speak in their accent.
Myabe a bit pedantic but I've always disliked this "my husband spoke French after his stroke" thing.
I admit .. "like Steffi Graff" signals how it sounds, at least to somebody. My friends with stroke speech impairment spoke like they'd had dental local anaesthetic, or were talking through a mouthful of marbles. It's as if they had lost control of some of the finer grained muscles related to speech and had the gross motor skills for the breath, the vocal cords, and the jaw only.
I totally agree with what you're saying, but just to note that in this article, the person who had the stroke is describing the experience. Whether someone told her that or whether she heard it herself, she found it meaningful enough to describe it that way herself.
A more favorable look is that the impeded person sounds like someone who has to learn the language as a non-native. If you've read the bit about her learning to walk consciously, it's not an odd comparison. Everything has to be done from the "wrong" starting point.
Well I'd need to see an actual example of the French thing. But I think a comparison to a thick accent would often work. When I speak Spanish my accent involves enough consistent clumsy wrongness that you could probably compare it to a speech impediment in a native Spanish speaker.
There is something similar that I experienced by learning a second language through exposure and not doing much precision based practice. Having words that you can understand when you hear but can’t use yourself is one thing, but when you start speaking words (that are actually correct to what you want to say) that you don’t understand when hearing yourself it’s quite disorientating.
This was a disturbing read, it felt like 1/3rd was documenting continued symptoms that really affected her life and ability to think clearly or substantively, without saying it explicitly.
I witnessed somebody go through a temporary form of this after brain surgery. They could converse relatively normally except were completely unable to make decisions.
They would talk about the bird songs from outside but being asked if they wanted a coffee would freeze. Thankfully they made a full recovery after a few months.
I had a weird experience with thankfully very temporary aphasia 20 years ago, which I wrote a bit about here: https://dmd.3e.org/2005-11-23-aphasia-and-back-sunday-20-nov...
wow, thank you for sharing that, fascinating read! glad you (presumably) recovered well from that episode, sounds quite scary!
A note to writers, when a stroke or other brain injury victim relearns speech the worst comparison you can make is "speaking french" or "like Steffi Graf" because it's not an acquired foreign accent syndrome, it's a brain injury.
It's a speech impairment. They're relearning how to form words. Just because one culture forms a rhotic R one way and another culture forms it another way or even deprecates it doesn't make you speak in their accent.
Myabe a bit pedantic but I've always disliked this "my husband spoke French after his stroke" thing.
I admit .. "like Steffi Graff" signals how it sounds, at least to somebody. My friends with stroke speech impairment spoke like they'd had dental local anaesthetic, or were talking through a mouthful of marbles. It's as if they had lost control of some of the finer grained muscles related to speech and had the gross motor skills for the breath, the vocal cords, and the jaw only.
I totally agree with what you're saying, but just to note that in this article, the person who had the stroke is describing the experience. Whether someone told her that or whether she heard it herself, she found it meaningful enough to describe it that way herself.
yes. I suspect it's a common approach, but when it becomes the News of the Weird headline it does my head in.
A more favorable look is that the impeded person sounds like someone who has to learn the language as a non-native. If you've read the bit about her learning to walk consciously, it's not an odd comparison. Everything has to be done from the "wrong" starting point.
She calls it "her German," BTW.
Well I'd need to see an actual example of the French thing. But I think a comparison to a thick accent would often work. When I speak Spanish my accent involves enough consistent clumsy wrongness that you could probably compare it to a speech impediment in a native Spanish speaker.
https://www.stroke.org/en/fast-experience
There is something similar that I experienced by learning a second language through exposure and not doing much precision based practice. Having words that you can understand when you hear but can’t use yourself is one thing, but when you start speaking words (that are actually correct to what you want to say) that you don’t understand when hearing yourself it’s quite disorientating.
The movie Bedazzled with Brendan Fraser has a scene where he wishes he was rich and powerful and wakes up as a Colombian drug lord.
When his butler asks him a question he says “Pardon, no hablo espanol. Uno momento! Mucho hablo espanol!”
It’s similar to that. You surprise yourself all the time.
This was a disturbing read, it felt like 1/3rd was documenting continued symptoms that really affected her life and ability to think clearly or substantively, without saying it explicitly.
(2025)
(this is all you ever do on this site) are you worried that it's now (out of date) given that it's now February? Was there something in your pancakes?
They are just being helpful
What's the help? Is having a stroke in Feb 2026 different from in 2025?