Just had a really strange moment. Is there a name for it?

[aimeeandbeatles]

I have a folder of articles in different languages that I haven't done anything with yet. Note that I'm incredibly bad with any languages other than English (at best, I can remember a few words. Most of you know this but I'm posting it for any newcomers). Anyways I was just looking through them while waiting for a batch of images to compress. Anyways, for a few minutes, no matter which one I opened -- and no matter in what language it was (well, as long as they used the same type of characters the English language uses) -- I could understand what it was saying (if not the exact words, then at least the meaning). But then it went away.

Is there a name for this? I know that a lot of languages come from the same origins. I googled it and I got something about a TV show and something about dating and something about cats body language and something about Foreign Accent Syndrome.

Thoughts?

 

[Synobun]

Probably a sudden moment of having access to a rather clouded piece of your subconscious and piecing unknown words together, in the same way that our eyes fill a lot of what we see with a guess of what would be there.

 

[RobAnybody]

Omnilinguist?

 

[Theige]

Probably just a few random articles that were easier to understand

 

[Aleenik]

You are just imagining you had a temporary super power when you really didn't.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

The strange thing is I opened up one of the articles again just a minute ago and it looked like rubbish to me like it usually does. It was really weird. Maybe my brain just got it for that little time.

 

[Lord Emsworth]

I would wager that you simply had some sort of illusion of understanding, not that you actually understood anything (much). ETA: Like having an idea and thinking it is a totally glorious idea at that moment, but when you revisit it later it seems all rubbish (because it is).

 

[Mise]

Another vote for "you didn't really understand it, you just believed you understood it for those few minutes."

I had a dream last night where I swore I figured out how to solve the world's energy crisis. I don't remember the solution now though.

 

[Rashiminos]

There was that story in the Bible about the disciples speaking in tongues...

 

[mayor]

it sometimes happens that people who have been in a coma wake up and are able to speak languages they never encountered before the coma.

Have you by any chance been in a coma(tose sleep) before you started reading it?

 

[Virote_Considon]

Had you read English translations of the articles before? It could just be that the layout/pictures/etc (everything but the words themselves!) are triggering the memory you have for the English version of the articles if that's the case.

 

[warpus]

Was it written in German? A long time ago German and English used to be one language.. sort of.. Anyway, there a lot of similarities between the two languages.

Meine mutter ist hier.
My mother is here.

etc.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

it sometimes happens that people who have been in a coma wake up and are able to speak languages they never encountered before the coma.

Have you by any chance been in a coma(tose sleep) before you started reading it?

I've never had a coma.

Had you read English translations of the articles before? It could just be that the layout/pictures/etc (everything but the words themselves!) are triggering the memory you have for the English version of the articles if that's the case.

No. The articles I had never done anything with, not even dumped in Google Translate.

Was it written in German? A long time ago German and English used to be one language.. sort of.. Anyway, there a lot of similarities between the two languages.

Meine mutter ist hier.
My mother is here.

etc.

At least one of the articles was.

 

[mayor]

I've never had a coma.

I figured that, that's why I added the (tose sleep)

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Well I don't know what tose sleep means.

 

[mayor]

It is a very deep sleep

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Well I don't know.

 

[NovaKart]

Tom Petty is the same in every language.