In what language do you think?

I absolutely think in English. I don't speak any of my other languages nearly well enough, and thinking in them would be painful.

The article mentions Russian, and I think that if I did think in Russian, it would be very different. As it mentions, nearly every part of a sentence has to be put into the proper grammatical case (you can order your sentence nearly any way you choose as long as your grammar is right, and the sentence will still mean the same thing). But the other thing that strikes me are verbs of motion. There are a ridiculous number of verbs that have to do with motion and if that wasn't bad enough, there are three forms of each verb: unidirectional imperfective, multidirectional imperfective, and perfective. They each describe a very specific type of motion. In English, you can say that I walked to work. In Russian, you'd use a different verb if it was a habitual action or if you walked there and back. There is a lot more precision, in that sense, compared to the ambiguity of the English sentence. And the other thing that occurs to me is the way some sentences are written reflexively. (Think of the meme, in Soviet Russia [noun] [verbs] you!) For example, my name is... actually is written The name of me is. I could imagine that syntax like that could have you thinking about things differently.

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I mostly think in English. I don't know any other languages fluently. But every now and then, I have a snippet in Japanese or Italian. Or a conlang. Rarely Latin.

It depends on which language I'm functioning in. If I'm speaking Japanese or reading Japanese, I think in Japanese as well. Vice versa is also true. I'm not a good code switcher, and this is probably partly why. If I'm speaking a lot of Japanese and thinking in Japanese, it'll actually throw me off to have to speak in English, even though it's my native language. It's weird.

That's a very interesting article!

I think in English, but while in French-speaking places, or when reading it, think simple thoughts in French. Same for Spanish. The more complex it is, the more likely that I'll have to translate in my mind.

I've never been good enough in German to really think in it, except for very simple things.

I bet in Spain I'd forget who broke the vase, too (from the article). But for me, I know my memory improves by far if I say something out loud, so I bet by thinking the name rather than not, I'd have better memory for it. That's still language affecting thought, of course, but I think it may be more indirect than the article makes out, imho.

kaitie said:

It depends on which language I'm functioning in. If I'm speaking Japanese or reading Japanese, I think in Japanese as well. Vice versa is also true. I'm not a good code switcher, and this is probably partly why. If I'm speaking a lot of Japanese and thinking in Japanese, it'll actually throw me off to have to speak in English, even though it's my native language. It's weird.

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This is exactly what happens to me too, only in French. If I have been functioning in French, even just for a few minutes, I absolutely think in French. And just to nudge the issue a little more (I admit I only skimmed the article), I think within a French cultural viewpoint as well. I say, think, and do different things than if I had been in my English mind. Flipping between the two requires a conscious effort more often than not and can honestly sometimes be a little irritating. I don't always want to switch, especially when I'm in my French mind but I need to talk to someone who only speaks English. All of which is exactly why my family has learned to understand at least a little French!

Well, I think in English, though whenever I'm thinking *about* Italian as a language I'd love to learn, little snippets come to my mind in Italian, and *sometimes* I don't translate them in my head, but more often I do have a little sub-thought, like, "Grazie... *Thankyou*" in my head.

I also have different emotions and impulses when I'm thinking Italian words. Like, just daydreaming about having a basic conversation in Italian makes me want to flirt, only I don't know the right words for flirting in Italian. I hardly ever want to flirt in English, because in English we mostly have "Pick-up lines" whereas Italian has entire tracts of "Flirtatious conversation" - like, flirting is built-in to Italian much better than in English, IMO. (I'm reading a book called La Bella Lingua all about the Italian language, and the author has so far mentioned flirting about 5 times in 3 chapters. They don't sound like pick-up lines, either... just emotional conversation bordering on the flirtatious.)

So basically, just one of the dozens of reasons I want to learn to speak Italian fluently is that in Italian I could train myself to be a casanova, whereas in English I'm all like, "Oh, nice shoes." *eyeroll*

Since most of my professional life revolves around English, I write in English and a lot of my friends speak English, I tend to think in English a lot of the time (my native language is Dutch).

That leads to amusing situations in which I'll prepare difficult conversations in my head (I do that, I get nervous sometimes) and when the time rolls around that I actually have the conversation, I realize my prepared conversation was in English and my conversation partner is Dutch. Oops.

Dr. Chomsky proposed that there is a universal grammar for all human languages—essentially, that languages don't really differ from one another in significant ways. And because languages didn't differ from one another, the theory went, it made no sense to ask whether linguistic differences led to differences in thinking.

This amused me. It sounded basically like "I say there's no real difference, so why the hell are y'all still researching it?"

Yeah, I know. But I have to make my own fun.

kaitie said:

It depends on which language I'm functioning in. If I'm speaking Japanese or reading Japanese, I think in Japanese as well. Vice versa is also true. I'm not a good code switcher, and this is probably partly why. If I'm speaking a lot of Japanese and thinking in Japanese, it'll actually throw me off to have to speak in English, even though it's my native language. It's weird.

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That's me, too. (Except you'll have to substituate English for Japanese, and German for English.) I was once watching British television all day. Then my mum came in and said something. I didn't even hear the words. It was a stream of nonsense syllables. It took me a while to realise that this was German, and I had to ask my mum to repeat what she said.

Similarly, I'm a frightfully slow translater, and I often can't think of even simple equivalents. This confuses people who know I can have fluent conversations in English. They think I just have to cross-index tables or something. X (English) = X (German). But that's not how I translate. I need to drop into a no-language zone to dive for the meaning, and then I need to find a way to express the meaning I come up with in the other language, and the other language is at a disadvantage, because it wasn't made for the purpose of expressing that meaning. It's like trying to hammer a nail into a wall with tongs. It works, but it's not as effecient. If people keep saying things like "But you only have to tell me what X (English) means in German," I can briefly shut down. That is: I function neither in English, nor in German. I blame dictionaries. They give people the wrong idea.

Wow, that truly is an interesting article... Ha, I wonder if it explains why I feel so dumb when I go back to visit my family....

Awesome article.
I have two mother languages; English and Portuguese. I mostly think in English but sometimes I find myself making up words in what I call "Entuguese." Annoying because some words should really exist in English (in my opinion) and don't, and I'm really adamant on using these words which doesn't help at all. The only example I can think of at the moment is "ponderation," I've tried and tried to make this word exist, but alas, Word will call me a jackass every single time, and "ponder" sometimes just doesn't cut it.
Maybe one day I'll be able to master the whole thinking-only-in-one-language, or maybe I'll just write a new dictionary. Just my multilingual prerogative.

Dawnstorm said:

That's me, too. (Except you'll have to substituate English for Japanese, and German for English.) I was once watching British television all day. Then my mum came in and said something. I didn't even hear the words. It was a stream of nonsense syllables. It took me a while to realise that this was German, and I had to ask my mum to repeat what she said.

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One of the weirdest for me was when I was traveling to Tokyo one day and had been reading in Japanese. I went up to the window, all prepared to speak Japanese to explain which ticket I wanted, particularly considering in my area none of the station workers speak English.

I got up there and she asked me a question and it took me three times to figure out that she was asking me in English. Then I managed to switch and did okay, but seriously, the first two times she asked me I had no earthly idea what she was saying. Same thing happens if I'm actively thinking in English too much and then suddenly have to change to Japanese.

Said The Sun said:

Annoying because some words should really exist in English (in my opinion) and don't, and I'm really adamant on using these words which doesn't help at all.

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That's me. If I could blend English and Italian I'd be the happiest person on Earth. Some words that don't exist in one language, well, they should just be adopted in the other because I do miss them. The funny thing is, English has indeed adopted MANY words from French. A linguistic friend was telling me that English has roughly 80K words whereas most Western European language have roughly 30K (interestingly we tend to us 3K in our every day life). But the problem is that many of those words have changed connotation after their "adoption" and so I still feel that so much is missed... In either language.

Dawnstorm said:

Similarly, I'm a frightfully slow translater, and I often can't think of even simple equivalents. This confuses people who know I can have fluent conversations in English. They think I just have to cross-index tables or something. X (English) = X (German). But that's not how I translate....

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Oh, I can't translate fast at all. I don't think of how to put something in English at all as I listen to my other languages. I find that it's hard to put into English because of the available word choices, etc, yes! I'm good at it if I'm just giving the gist quickly, but those UN translators really impress me.

Said The Sun said:

Awesome article.
I have two mother languages; English and Portuguese. I mostly think in English but sometimes I find myself making up words in what I call "Entuguese." Annoying because some words should really exist in English (in my opinion) and don't, and I'm really adamant on using these words which doesn't help at all. The only example I can think of at the moment is "ponderation," I've tried and tried to make this word exist, but alas, Word will call me a jackass every single time, and "ponder" sometimes just doesn't cut it.
Maybe one day I'll be able to master the whole thinking-only-in-one-language, or maybe I'll just write a new dictionary. Just my multilingual prerogative.

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Oh man, I think all of us foreigners living here pick up certain words because there's just no good equivalent in English. I totally know what you mean.

backslashbaby said:

Oh, I can't translate fast at all. I don't think of how to put something in English at all as I listen to my other languages. I find that it's hard to put into English because of the available word choices, etc, yes! I'm good at it if I'm just giving the gist quickly, but those UN translators really impress me.

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Truly bilingual people don't translate. That's because they (we) think in each language we use. So why would you translate? People who do it for a job go through hours of training, but in every day life we don't translate.

I haven't really spoken French for several years, but when I was in my later years of studying it in school, I found I tended to think in it. It just made the language easier to speak, rather than trying to figure out what I wanted to say. The early mental gymnastics is one of the stumbling blocks of learning a foreign language, I think.

Said The Sun said:

The only example I can think of at the moment is "ponderation," I've tried and tried to make this word exist, but alas, .

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Hah, that's a fantastic word.

And if English speaking scientists can change language to suit their way of thinking, you go ahead STS. You've only gone and done what they do: change a verb (ponder) into a noun form 'ponderation'. So it sounds fine to me

Ponderation: a process by where one expresses thought over action: especially noted by the more visual signs of putting ones hand under ones chin tilting head towards the sky and giving a deep sigh...Hmmmmmmm



Nice to meet you, btw

I think in Spanglish.

So much, in fact, that false cognates get me into linguistic trouble.

Molestar, which is similar to to annoy does not equal to molest. And yet, every so often, I'll shout (in English), "Quit molesting me! I'm trying to write."

There are also things I can do in Spanish grammar that I can't do in English grammar. This occasionally leads me to try anyway, leaving me stuttering through a sentence I can't logically complete.

I'm helping a Spanish-speaking friend with an English WIP at the moment, and I was relieved to see him trying the same sorts of things. It assured me that I am not, in fact, insane.

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I can switch between thinking in English and thinking in Spanish, though. And I do interpret the world differently. And for some reason, I flirt more when I'm in Spanish-mode.

Bartholomew said:

Molestar, which is similar to to annoy does not equal to molest. And yet, every so often, I'll shout (in English), "Quit molesting me! I'm trying to write."

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Ha ha ha, where was it that I read "Por favor, que no molesten a los perros" translated into "Please do not molest the dogs".... ????? I can't remember if it was a friend of mine that told me that or if I read it here in another bilingual thread... In any case, it's hilarious. There's so many false friends that can cause serious trouble... My second child was born in Spain and over there they say "pinchar" (informally) when they do the shots... So I was talking to a friend, telling her how the doctor had "pinched" my child, and she frowned and said, "And you didn't yell at the doctor???"
And I still wonder why the first day I went to buy vegetables the lady gaped at me when I said, "Me ocurre un kilo de patatas..." Why, don't potatoes occur to everybody at some point or another???? No???

Sigh. Mi occorre=I need in Italian.

Fallen said:

Ponderation: a process by where one expresses thought over action: especially noted by the more visual signs of putting ones hand under ones chin tilting head towards the sky and giving a deep sigh...Hmmmmmmm



Nice to meet you, btw

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Haha I know right? Usually if the word I'm trying to use is listed in the Urban Dictionary, it's enough of a red flag to discourage me. But I will fight for "ponderation."

OneWriter said:

And I still wonder why the first day I went to buy vegetables the lady gaped at me when I said, "Me occurre un kilo de patatas..." Why, don't potatoes occur to everybody at some point or another???? No???

Sigh. Mi occorre=I need in Italian.

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If she was guessing from a latin root, she may have thought you wanted to kill the potatoes, too.

Oh! I just remembered two more.
The word "strives." Try as I may I can't bring myself to see this word only as a verb. I've attempted to use it like "the queen of his strives," like the queen of his efforts, get it? I STAY trying to make this a noun. But sadly it never works out for me. And I've realized it isn't just because I'm prone to dumbassness, it's really because in Portuguese you can use it that way.

Another word I'm constantly battling with is "enthuses" I am so sure this could be used like this: "If I thought that by now after all his instructions and enthuses on tennis, I possessed some sort of newly acquired knowledge around the court, I was deplorably mistaken."
In Portuguese it would make sense to use it like this and it would be poetic and pretty. In English it's shit. I literally have "enthuses" used like this a good ten or twelve times in my whole manuscript, and all underlined with the note (EDIT-Try again jackass) Now that I'm on this, what word would you use instead?

It's quite exasperating. *sigh* But it's okay. Really. It's okay.

Okay (gulp) first official post after newbie introduction. Please be kind

Although I'm Greek, I've been living in the UK for seven good years now, and I frequently catch myself actually thinking in English. I suppose it has to do with how powerfully and completely the words and phrases themselves express what's in my head. Once a language is sort of 'embedded' in your head, if that makes any sense, it's quite amusing to be able to kind of switch between the two instinctively. I even catch myself exclaiming in Spanish every once in a while- because the sarcasm of such exclamations match both my mood and my kind of love-all-the-sarcasm personality.

Hey, Welcome! And thumbs up for putting Sagan in your signature!

I totally understand the language/mood association. I managed to learn very little German (too hard!) but when I'm angry at my kids that handful of words that I still remember comes out SO easily!!! I mean, nothing beats the sound of VERBOTEN!!!!