If you speak more than one language, which language do you think in?

Question

I would really like to know from people who live in countries other than their native language.

Answer 1

I think in whichever language I happen to be speaking. It's much easier to speak well and with good grammar when you do.

Answer 2

I always tend to think in my native language, but I think that comes with being out of practice. What I find amusing is that in learning more than one other language, I always tend to answer in the one (foreign language) in which I'm most fluent (for me German). So while I"m a native English speaker, if you ask me something in Spanish, my first reaction is to respond in German. I think that's hillarious and I've observed it in others as well.

Answer 3

Agree with many of the answers. I love it when afterwards you don't remember what language you were using - that means you were really thinking in that language and the meaning came directly to your brain (or from your brain to your mouth, without translation).
It's also true that when you start learning a new language, words come to your mind in the other languages you know, besides your first one.

Answer 4

I speak 3 languages. Usually, I think in the language that I am using at the time. while conversing with sombody. When I'm just thinking to myself, I'll use any one of the 3 without thinking about it.

Answer 5

depending on the language I'm using at the time. If I'm not talking, then I immediately go into Spanish, my native language.

Answer 6

It depends on how deep is your knowledge and practice of the second language... I'm from Mexico, but when I'm in the States and people speak to me in English I think in English, I don't translate in my mind. If I count in silence, and all the math thinking in general, I do it in Spanish. Sometimes I have watched a DVD, and at the end I don't remember if I did it in English or Spanish.

Answer 7

Depends mainly on who I'm with and what I'm doing - I think in my native language or in English, perhaps more often in English. Apart from thinking in images, of course :)

Answer 8

First language is Spanish, I know French, but I USUALLY think in English. During stressful times, my brain goes to "default" mode and I start thinking in Spanish lol.

Answer 9

I normally think in pictures which is sort of a whole different language, but i do most math in German, my 2nd language

(Note that i was born and live in the US but learned german before i learned english schoolwise )

Answer 10

You think in the language you speak, or you don't speak it. It's impossible to speak any language without thinking in it.