What language do you think in??

Question

well..i have a lot of time to think when i am mowing (i do it a lot) yeah well..me thinking to myself got me thinking on...what language do other people think in?? i'm american, so i think in English...so...people who speak Spanish..do you think in spanish? people who speak in Persian...do you think in Persian? people who speak Chinese...do you think in Chinese?? odd question i know..but it's pretty interesting if you think about it. haha. ;) star this please! i want many many answers!! thanks!

now for those few ppl who got their knickers in a knot...CHILL OUT! it's a simple question! bug off will you.

Answer 1

Whatever language I speak at the time, is the language I think in. Also, with every language comes a certain culture of "behavior" so I have noticed that my personality and demeanor change accordingly.

I tend to be myself the most when I speak English. Since I have to act "properly," following certain "codes" while speaking Farsi, I tend to be less outgoing then. Oddly enough, the only time I think in Swedish is when my mom and I argue---maybe I subconsciously go back to my teen age years of arguing with her and living in Sweden? I don't know.

Interesting question and I'll star it to get more responses :)

EDIT: Damn Katiana, you speak 3 too? I hear you on the sex talk in English---can't imagine communicating anything sexual in Farsi or Arabic, I don't even think certain words exist.

Answer 2

Well!!! A classical language, is a language with a literature that is classical— i.e., it should be ancient, it should be an independent tradition that arose mostly on its own, not as an offshoot of another tradition, and it must have a large and extremely rich body of ancient literature. How Tamil is classical? Claims regarding the "Primary Classicality of Tamil": 1. Lemurian origin 2. Phonological simplicity 3. Catholicity . 4. Tamulic substratum of the Aryan family of languages. 5. Morphological purity and primitiveness . 6. The presence of the words ‘amma’ and ‘appa’ in almost all great languages in some form or other. 7. Absence of Nominative case-termination . 8. Separability and significance of all affixes . 9. Absence of morphological gender 10. Absence of arbitrary words 11. Traceability of Tamil to its very origin. 12. Logical and natural order of words . 13. Absence of dual number . 14. Originality and natural development . 15. Highest order of the classicality . Classical Languages in India: 1. Tamil 2. Sanskrit 3. Kannada 4 . Telugu Classical Languages in the world (other than Indian): 1. Sumerian 2. Egyptian 3. Babylonian 4. Hebrew 5. Chinese 6. Greek 7. Latin * Though the first three languages exitsed along with all 7, only the latter 4 along with Tamil and Sanskrit are called as Worlds Classical languages

Answer 3

Hi Misfit, Ready for this one?! Hope so!
We all may feel that we that we are thinking in certain languages most of the time,though we are just recalling stored memories which are chemically reacted,almost like pushing a key on your keyboard,depending on how your computer and hardware are set up is what determines the outcome.So if you never learned to speak any language you would not think in any language at all,so you may think that if you have never heard a language than the same may apply,well not so,we also think in pictures,in fact for the first 5years of our lives those of us that can see learn the most in the shortest time(discarding other learning disabilities)than what we will ever do for the rest of our lives,and we owe it all to thinking in pictures,Great insight to ask such a question so I had better tell you how I think.......I believe I think in the language of numbers(1's & 0's Logic),pictures,love,passion then I talk to myself in a kind of rambling English.Not necessaraly in that order though,sometimes all at once,oh yer I downloaded some Persian music for you,if you want to sent me an e-mail I can sort out a way to send it to you.

Answer 4

Hahaha...this really is an interesting question, and I can't see why someone would possibly be bothered by it...amusing.

To answer your inquiry, it depends on what I'm thinking about.
For some reason, when I'm bothered I usually think in Spanish, but when having thoughts of sex (with dirty talk) it can alternate from English to Spanish, if I have work in mind, or anything related, it's usually in English.
I don't really think in Arabic, unless I'm translating or speaking with someone who's communicating with me in the language.


Edit: Ha ha ha... Lioness, you're a trip, woman!
Yep, sex talk in Arabic just doesn't sound right, and yes, many of the dirty sex words we use in the English language don't even exist in Arabic, and some that do, are not translated as sexual terms.

Answer 5

Interesting question. It just happened to me today, I could not figure out a word in my native language (actually I have 2, Swedish and Finnish, live in Finland), so I had to call a friend of mine and ask about a word I was thinking of in English, but did not remember how to say it in my native languages. I answered a lot of questions on Yahoo Canada last night. I believe that caused my loss of "memory", I even remember dreaming in English last night. I believe it´s very possible you might think in Chinese (not being a Chinese, though) if you study that language (or any other language) hard. I have had many dreams in Spanish (lived in Majorca for 4 years and Spanish is a favourite language of mine). I´m a living "evidence" of the fact that a foreign language can affect your brains in the way you mean.

Answer 6

Smile. I usually think in the language I am speaking at the moment. I am fluent in 6 very different languages: English, Russian, French, German, Polish and Chech. So thinking in those languages comes hand in hand with communication. Lioness is right when she brings up the attitude changes with the use of a different language. I do not smile as much, when I speak German...

Answer 7

I think in English. I never have the opportunity to speak my other language [arabic], so I don't really think in it either.. I just hope I don't forget how to speak it!

I don't really speak German fluently, I can keep a conversation going for a little but I don't consider it enough to be able to say that I actually speak German.. So I don't normally think in German either.. I do occasionally a word here and there but not often.

Answer 8

I have ALWAYS wondered about this and asked my foreign friends too...

I almost always think in English, but I speak alot of span, so sometimes I find myself mispelling something b/c I am writing the spanish word or thinking in spanish w/o knowing it. Sometimes people in my dreams will speak spanish. This is usually a nightmare where I know what they are speaking but I cant understand it from lack of studying!

Answer 9

That's an interesting question. I actually think in English though I'm Brazilian, and that's why I didn't had a hard time learning it. Now I'm trying to switch to Portuguese back again, because I'm getting progressively bad at verbal communication.

Answer 10

I am Chinese, can speak Mandarin and know a little Spanish. But I think in English, pretty much.