I always got non-first language words confused. What interested me was when I was relearning French and learning German (to read patent docs) after having learnt sign-language (as my 4th studied language) I could think of words in sign when I was trying to find the right French word. It's kinda weird to think of a word and have an action come to mind.
I have a similar anecdote — getting muddled between French and German when learning them back-to-back at school — but bringing sign into the mix blows mine away!
Makes a lot of sense actually. Just today I was forgetting the name of someone I had just written down in the morning, and visualising the japanese characters of their name as I had written them brought the name into clarity.
