If you speak two different languages,what language would you think in?

Question

If you were born in New Jersey in a Spanish speaking household but was taught in English in school what language would you think in? And how could you speak both languages perfectly?! I'm not sure why, but this concept confuses me soooo much!

Answer 1

Im not sure about the spanish in New Jersey thing, but my Native in afrikaans and learned english in school, and nowadays i often find myself thinking in english, it usually depends on what language im speaking at the time or reading, like at the moment all thoughts are in english...hope it clears things a bit

Answer 2

I speak six languages, so I get this question a lot.

If you speak both languages fluently (REALLY fluently), you don't think in any language at all. You think in concept. The only time you put a thought to language is when you need to express it to someone. You may even often find yourself limited by language - sometimes a thought is too big or too specific to even fit into words of any languages you know.

Answer 3

I am from a Spanish speaking country and am currently living in the United States. I have learned English, and weird as it seems, now I think in English.

Answer 4

usually what ever it is that u spend more than half ur time speaking is what u think in. usually what u were brought up in. where u spend most of ur time? at home speaking spanish? or with ur friends speaking english? if u learn it at a young age then it will be easier for ur brain to get accustomed to the fact that u can say one word in two diff. languages, so thats prolly how it goes

Answer 5

My native language is English, but I also speak Spanish. Sometimes I think in English and sometimes in Spanish.
People who are exposed to more than one language when they are young naturally acquire both of those languages. It's common in many places in the world.

Answer 6

Instructors tell you that you cannot speak a language until you begain to think in it. When you start you are connecting the new word to the word you are used to using. "How do you say Thank you in Spanish?" Then you translate the words "muchas gracia" in the Spanish language as "thanks very much"
After a time you just think and say "gracias" or "muchas gracia" without thinking. You know that is the expression meaning thanks or thank you. Children up to about age 5 are busy learning all kinds of words and have no trouble accepting more than one word to say or discribe something. We all learn several different ways to say things or names for things, so a second language for a child is no big deal. For those of us who grow up speaking one language, adding a second is difficult. But we all use words other than our native language everyday and don't realize.
So if you are speaking English, you are thinking in English. If you are also conversant in Swahili, then you can think in Swahili.
In other words, once you accept another word for something, when you use that word you are not translating it from your primary language into the language the word comes from. You are actually speaking and thinking in that language. After a while you don't even realize you are thinking in more than one language because you know what is being said in either language without translating one to the other.
Another way of looking at it is to think how many words we use to discribe something like: horse, colt, mare, stallion, Clydsdale, pony. They all mean horse, just differnt ways of saying or discribing a horse. So if you learn the Spanish word for horse, caballo, at first you think "that means horse" but after a while you just know what it means like you know what all the other names for horse mean. So you think in the language you are speaking or hearing. But your mind just links a word up with a meaning and doesn't worry how many other words it knows for the same thing.

Answer 7

It would depend on where you are. If you speak Spanish fluently and you are surrounded by others who are speaking Spanish, you will most likely think in Spanish. If you also speak English and are surrounded by others speaking English, you will most likely think in English.

Answer 8

Probably my birth language.

Some thought passes so quickly we get to the end of it before we could put it into words. I believe the concepts are known but unless they are uttered, are in no language at all.

Answer 9

i can speak mandarin (not fluently), fukien, english, and filipino but i think mostly in filipino and english. i think you think in the language you're most familiar with. but one thing's for sure, if you want to learn a language, you should think using that language, it's a good way to practice. :)

Answer 10

In a situation like that you think in English, cause you use it to talk with your peers. If you ask me it'd hard to speak them equally, usually one is going to dominate over the other.