This is just something I've always been a little curious about. Even if you can speak different languages, do you actually think in them or do you always think in your native language?
2006-10-23 23:00:59 · 25 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
I speak French and Spanish, but English is my native language. For the most part I think in English, but I sometimes find cases where I think of a word or a concept in another language and I'll struggle to think of the English translation. I also find that I will dream in French or Spanish sometimes. When I get annoyed or frustrated I find myself thinking or talking in another language.
For me, the language I think in depends on the context: If I'm talking to someone in say Spanish, everything that I think in as it relates to the conversation is in Spanish. If I'm reading something in Spanish I don't translate the words, I immediately understand (without translating) but what throws me off is if someone all-of-a-sudden talks to me in English......it takes me a second to change my mindset to understand what they told me (and it's like that going between any of the three languages)
Sometimes though, I just have a language randomly surprise me. Most recently I broke my leg and went into emergency surgery. When I woke up from the surgery I was speaking only French! I don't remember too much from that other than that I was getting frustrated that they couldn't understand me.
The best that I can tell you is that language creates reality. You have a dominant version of reality, but sometimes your view of the world around you shifts and changes based on how your language adjusts it. It's not just 'thinking' in a language, it's letting that language manufacture a reality for you. That's when you know that you're at a level of mastery.
2006-10-24 02:14:17 · answer #1 · answered by loboconqueso 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It depends on the moment and which language you are speaking. Bi-lingual people think in all the languages they have mastered, when speaking that language, from my experience. The mother tongue tends to dominate but not always, even in dreams the second or third language can appear.
2006-10-23 23:17:39 · answer #2 · answered by custers_nemesis 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
English
2006-10-23 23:10:27 · answer #3 · answered by Dark Prince 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I always thinking in my native language,
I only use those other languages during communicate with other people, or when I`m reading a book that written in different language
2006-10-23 23:20:01 · answer #4 · answered by Papilio paris 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mine is a little harder. While I think in English, I am constantly thinking simultanously in another language. See, my daughter is deaf, which means I have to know what hand signs to make. Thinking simultaneously like that can be a little annoying when I'm not around my daughter, because often I'll make some gesture expecting everyone to know what it means, and then I realize that they've never even met a deaf person, much less tried to speak with one.
It is quite handy around loud machinery though, which gives me an advantage over other workers who have to shout until their voices are hoarse so they can be heard. I guess I should let them in on the secret....
2006-10-23 23:12:05 · answer #5 · answered by Mr. Maul 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The well-known and renowned psychologist Steven Pinker has shown that we actually don't use our language when we are thinking, but rather employ something which he has labelled "Mentalese".
That said, when I count I still do so in my native language, although I have been using English almost exclusively for two thirds of my life.
2006-10-24 01:45:05 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
My French is pretty decent, but I still think in English 80% of the time when I'm speaking French (and 100% of the time when I'm not). My German is not very good, and I really don't think in German at all.
My husband thinks in both (English and French), but usually only one at a time.
My kids who are bilingual from birth and now trilingual since about age 6/4 (they're 11 and 7) think in at least English and French, I'm not sure about German for the younger one. They sometimes have to really think in both at the same time and can have trouble with that.
2006-10-24 00:13:20 · answer #7 · answered by Goddess of Grammar 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Depends on the context. Home I'm thinking in the nativ langage, but at work, the language that I'm using in that particular situation.
2006-10-23 23:16:50 · answer #8 · answered by Robert W 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it all depends on the situation that I am in. Most of the time I think in English with some Mandarin thought patterns. However, it has gotten to the point where it is like a light switch - I can switch from one to the other really fast
2006-10-24 08:20:16 · answer #9 · answered by mike i 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I suppose that, by sheer definition, a truly bilingual person has complete command of two languages.
And, they then often find themselves dreaming in either language.
I, for one, have had dreams in the second language: and, I don't even consider myself bilingual, yet. I am still learning.
Those who "think first in their dominant language, before translating it--in their minds--into the second language"...they are at a certain PLATEAU, in their grasp of that second language.
(After spending time living in a country where nobody speaks your birth language, you will quickly become fluent in that second language: and, it will be the language you speak, write, think, sing, dream, and day-dream in.)
That is my observation, anyway.
2006-10-23 23:50:45 · answer #10 · answered by hohobankhamen 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋