if a person is bilingual do they think in different languages too?

Question

or just their native tongue.

Answer 1

I do!
I speak English (2nd language) and Spanish ( native language) and I think in both.

Answer 2

I dated a bilingual fellow and he mostly thought in his native tongue but could switch since I just spoke english. Kinda messed with him cuz he knew a bit of both and soon became an expert of neither.

Answer 3

I speak English and French. I think most people think in their mother tongue. Although my mother tongue is English some words are more appropriate in French. Words like depanneur (corner store)or even the National anthem , we had to sing it in the two languages in school and I remember it better in French.

Answer 4

I agree. i don't comprehend if i think like a different individual; yet i glance different, even while thinking! although i'm now fluent in 3 languages, i became raised bilingual. the hot addition is eastern, yet i exploit it lots. the final difference is once I communicate, not while i think of, as a results of fact i don't see myself while i think of! Others see me once I communicate and be conscious the diversities - not basically facial, yet physique language aswell. I even have been advised my strikes and gestures velocity up once I communicate Polish and that i glance to alter into smaller once I communicate eastern! The worst difficulty is while kinfolk telephone me in Japan; the elders communicate Polish, my era speaks in English yet i'm nevertheless thinking in eastern. Little time and lots of folk passing the telephone from one to a different. The questions are fired at me and the language keeps changing ... and that i stumble on the single be conscious I continuously get incorrect is the main elementary one in each and every of all - the be conscious "sure". It springs out of my mouth interior the language of its selection! "sure, Hai, Tak, Yeah "...and so on. Now i attempt to adhere to "Aha!"

Answer 5

I dream 'n English, Irish (sometimes, 'though not too much), French, German, Spanish ('though not too much), Latin (when I was younger)... Norwegian (while I was learning it), Mandarin (again while I was mastering the basics of it one winter)...

I sometimes dream that I am writing or reading, then it can be Java (yuck!), C, Perl or Common Lisp (which I am currently learning)...

Obviously I think 'n different languages @ different times... & sometimes 'n two or three...

Answer 6

I work with a few people of different nationalities and they tell me they think in the language they are speaking.

Answer 7

when im in france i think in English. When im in the States i think in French. and in sweden i thought in English. Its weird i think. but it has always been like that and so forth. i just feel the need to convert it into another language in order to get a better understanding. to transalate. its just a habit ive caught onto since i was little while living overseas. im just used to doing it i guess.

Answer 8

Yes!
I speak French and sometimes I'll think in French as well as English.
It all has the same meaning.

Answer 9

They think in their native tongue and then translate.

Answer 10

Both, I had a friend who is biligual and thought in both languages, then translated to the one she was going to use.