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To Bi/Multilinguals... (Or Anyone, Really. Come in!)


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I think mostly in my life I speak English, which is my first language, but when I talk to some of my friends I use my (somewhat broken) spanish.

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I predominantly think in Polish, but I also do think in English. I sometimes struggle with speaking, because my brain mixes those two languages. Oh, there's also Japan speak and I often talk to myself in Japanese even though it's not as advanced. I like to talk with people who know the languages I do, because then I can convey what I want with greater accuracy.

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  • 1 year later...

Curious...has any other bi/multi-lingual noticed personality change(s) depending upon which language(s) you are communicating in & the culture(s) that are associated with a specific language?  What is the terminology for this particular phenomenon? 

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9 hours ago, Eutierria said:

Curious...has any other bi/multi-lingual noticed personality change(s) depending upon which language(s) you are communicating in & the culture(s) that are associated with a specific language?  What is the terminology for this particular phenomenon? 

I'm not sure what you mean by "changes in the culture(s) that are associated with a specific language".

 

However, there are only two languages I'm somewhat fluent in and it seems like that means that developing a different personality isn't "necessary", whereas when I use a language I'm not really fluent in, developing any kind of specfic personality isn't even an option.

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@HomerAs in automatically switching use of language to be more submissive / assertive depending not just on context of environment but also within how you express yourself within the majority culture of where specific language is used.  Not sure that is any clearer...🤔😂

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On 6/20/2019 at 5:56 PM, Eutierria said:

Curious...has any other bi/multi-lingual noticed personality change(s) depending upon which language(s) you are communicating in & the culture(s) that are associated with a specific language?  What is the terminology for this particular phenomenon? 

I don't consider myself multilingual, I'm nothing more than a language lover, and not even a good one at that. But I do notice some personality changes depending on which language I am trying to communicate. I was supposed to know what it's called since I studied all of this in university, but I do not remember.

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On 6/20/2019 at 9:56 PM, Eutierria said:

Curious...has any other bi/multi-lingual noticed personality change(s) depending upon which language(s) you are communicating in & the culture(s) that are associated with a specific language?  What is the terminology for this particular phenomenon? 

No idea as to the terminology but yes, definitely noticed this! Like when I switch languages (fully fluently) but don’t switch the way I approach interactions I get some very funny looks! The words may be perfect but the sentence makes literally no sense to the locals as it’s culturally so different. And I’m only using two European languages!

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On 6/20/2019 at 10:56 PM, Eutierria said:

Curious...has any other bi/multi-lingual noticed personality change(s) depending upon which language(s) you are communicating in & the culture(s) that are associated with a specific language?  What is the terminology for this particular phenomenon? 

I don't know if there's a scientific term for this phenomenon, but I sure noticed those changes in my personality, too, when switching languages. I even experience those changes when I speak to people from different cultures in the same language, but maybe that's because I'm wired differently in general ...

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@kiaroskuro changing your personality to match the cultural background of the people you're talking to in the same language is called adaptive behaviour.

I think you could call changing your personality when you speak a different language adaptive behaviour as well, from the unconscious assumption or habit that the people you talk to in a certain language will tend to have the cultural background that is dominant for native speakers of that language.

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19 hours ago, lapat67 said:

@kiaroskuro changing your personality to match the cultural background of the people you're talking to in the same language is called adaptive behaviour.

I think you could call changing your personality when you speak a different language adaptive behaviour as well, from the unconscious assumption or habit that the people you talk to in a certain language will tend to have the cultural background that is dominant for native speakers of that language.

Yes, I'm aware that both types of adapting one's behaviour are closely linked.

 

I personally don't like these changes in personality, because they make me feel as if I'm weak in character. But that's a different kettle of fish and it has nothing to do with the subject we're discussing here.

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  • 8 months later...

I don't have a first language. English and Welsh are both kind of my first languages. I have equal knowledge in both and learned both from a young age. I go to a welsh school but everyone around me (apart from my family) speaks english, so I had to learn that too. I tend to think in the language I'm talking in and if I try learning a new language (like I'm learning Spanish) then I'll filter it through welsh because I learned spanish from welsh (if that makes sense). I suppose you don't really think of it.

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  • 4 months later...

I personally think in English a lot of the time even though it's my third language. As a kid, I grew up bilingual (French and German), started learning English around the age of 12. Today when I think in words (cause I often think in images too), it's either English or French, but I had periods in my life where I thought more in German. Lots of potential explanations, but the point is, I think it depends on the circumstances and your relationship to the thoughts (I've rarely thought about lgbt+ issues in another language than English, whereas I think about music in French, since I learnt music in french).

I know a lot of people tend to keep thinking in their native language if they emigrate to another country as an adult though.

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  • 2 months later...

I'm fluent in German (native language), English and French, and often catch myself having thoughts in English or thinking of the English word but not the German one even if there's an equivalent. I also lived in the UK for 2 years and still use English on a daily basis, so I guess that explains some of it. When I still lived in the UK I was even worse with forgetting German words as I sometimes went for days without actually speaking any German. I hardly ever think in French but at the moment I use it a lot less than German and English.

I don't really notice my personality changing that much when I switch from one language to another, but other people have pointed it out to me many times.

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  • 1 year later...
J. van Deijck

I mostly use Dutch in daily life (or some sort of Dutch as people from the Netherlands say about Flemish Dutch sometimes), and I think in both Dutch and English these days. Sometimes the situation requires switching to English because I have some people in my environment who don't speak Dutch at all.

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SlicedUpSnake

I mostly think in english when I'm around people that don't speak french or german (I'm french and it is my first language but I lived my whole life in Germany so I'm fluent in both). But it is quite important to say that I'm better in english than in german because french and english are really close (the vocabulary). I'm fluent in all three but it goes like this french>english>german.

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Dominus Temporis
On 8/20/2015 at 10:42 PM, VZwolf said:

Just a stray thought I had.

As a kid I remember asking myself what languages other people thought in. Logically seeing as I am British and my first language is English, I speak and think in English; so it would make sense for other people (say, a German person) to think in whatever language is their first (i.e. German).

But what of bi- and multilingual people?

I would assume that unless fluent in another language, you would continue to think in your first. But is that true?

I speak 8-9 languages, but at different levels. My native language is Danish, but I don't use it much, so I think in English most of the time (my Danish sort of sucks to be honest). I might sometimes think in some of the languages I am reasonably good at, but mainly if I've been using them. I will sometimes dream in random languages as well, even if it's a language I am quite bad at, such as Latin or Mandarin. I will, however, add that I think less in any language that I used to when I was a child (and monolingual). Often, I just think without language being involved. 

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3 hours ago, Dominus Temporis said:

Often, I just think without language being involved. 

That's how it actually works for me as a default. I'm always cofused by the "think in [name of the language]", because it's not something I do, unless I make a conscious effort. 

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EmeraldIce

I'd say my default language is English, which is chronologically my third language but it's the language I'm most comfortable in because I grew up in an English-speaking country. A lot of 1.5 generation immigrants like me lose their first language completely or remain at a 3-year-old's speaking level. My husband is in a similar situation as me and his is even worse. He can communicate just fine in Chinese (his first language), but it frustrates him because it takes a lot of energy out of him to try to find the right words using a limited vocabulary. He communicates much more easily, fluently, and casually in English (his second language).

 

This being said, sometimes there are words and expressions that simply don't translate well, and I can think interchangeably in Chinese, English, and French. Of course, if I'm in a setting where a language is spoken, I will think in that language until I can't. I work in a setting where everyone is at least bilingual in French and English, so we're just really used to using languages interchangeably. Some people don't even notice who uses which language. I've overheard a conversation where one person was using English and the other French. Until I pointed it out, neither of them even realized they weren't speaking the same language.

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Lord Revan

My dominant language is English, but as my first languages were American English and Spanish Spanish, but I learned French a little later on. I usually think in English, but sometimes I think in whatever I'm talking in right now.

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  • 2 weeks later...

i rarely think in anything other than english

occasionally ill mutter something in russian but its all english

 

its a bit of a dominant language to me (english) as i use it at school a lot and everywhere else except for when im around parents, at home, or in relatives/family friends' houses

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I think mostly in Russian, switching to English only when needed.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm currently learning European Portuguese and Spanish (Mexico's dialect) and a native English speaker.

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I guess it depends on what I am doing. Nowadays I use English more than my native language, since I live abroad and all of my friends in here come from different parts of the world. When I'm alone and not thinking about uni related things I guess I switch back to my native language.
I noticed that I tend to swear a bit when I speak English, just to give emphasis to my thoughts, while I never swear in my native language. Like, never, because I don't feel the need to. Unfortunately English doesn't have many shades of meaning compared my native language, so I guess that's why I swear sometimes.
Oh, when I speak English I'm not as funny as I usually am, and I don't use my hands as mush as I usually do.

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On 7/10/2022 at 6:55 AM, ColeHW34 said:

I'm currently learning European Portuguese and Spanish (Mexico's dialect) and a native English speaker.

Good luck with that! I've been living in Portugal for almost two years and I still struggle with the accent 😢

But I also didn't put much effort in it, almost every single person that I met switched to English when they realized I wasn't Portuguese. From my personal experience I can tell you that almost everyone here speaks English well.

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J. van Deijck
7 hours ago, vin3g4r said:

From my personal experience I can tell you that almost everyone here speaks English well.

Same in northern Belgium. Here even elderly people know at least a bit of English. 

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13 hours ago, vin3g4r said:

Good luck with that! I've been living in Portugal for almost two years and I still struggle with the accent 😢

But I also didn't put much effort in it, almost every single person that I met switched to English when they realized I wasn't Portuguese. From my personal experience I can tell you that almost everyone here speaks English well.

My accent keeps interfering too.

Interestingly enough, I don't stutter when speaking in Portuguese despite me stuttering while speaking English (my native tongue) .

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14 hours ago, godverdomme said:

Same in northern Belgium. Here even elderly people know at least a bit of English. 

Exactly! It's something that I wasn't expecting, since only younger generations (from mine on I'd say) speak English in my hometown.

8 hours ago, ColeHW34 said:

My accent keeps interfering too.

Interestingly enough, I don't stutter when speaking in Portuguese despite me stuttering while speaking English (my native tongue) .

That's good! I stutter in every language :') and I'm very slow when I speak Portuguese, I already speak two other Romance languages so I get very confused, especially with verb tenses.

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On 7/15/2022 at 11:00 PM, vin3g4r said:

I already speak two other Romance languages so I get very confused, especially with verb tenses.

I tried learning Italian and Spanish at the same time. Big mistake, although in my case it was vocabulary that was tripping me up. Now I've ditched Spanish and am working on revising my Italian. I also learned (or rather had lessons of) French at uni, but only for passive use. 

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