Talking to a couple of friends at university about this (one’s french, the other from Liechtenstein) they said generally they think in their original language, but when they’re talking to people over here in english they also start thinking in english as well.
So, what language do you think in, your original or ones you’ve learnt later? Does talking to people in one of your non-original languages make you think in that language, too?
I did a question like this a while ago.
To me the first threshold between “speak some XYZ” and “multilingual” is whether I think fluidly in it or not.
I think in Spanish, English and Catalan, therefore I’m trilingual. The amount of accent I have depends on whether I’ve been practicing them lately and on how tired I am (yes, I get a stronger accent in Spanish when I’m tired, too, and it’s my first language).
French, German, Italian and Latin are all in the realm of “speak some, read better”. I’ve been practicing my French lately and I’ve already started thinking in it, but I still can’t go more than a single sentence without inserting a word that’s Spanish, English or Catalan.
On a day-to-day basis, I think in English.
But when someone is speaking to me in one of my foreign languages, my mind “thinks” in those languages, not in English. I am not translating into English and back again.
Once left to my own internal monologue, I revert back to thinking in English.
I speak 3.5 languages. The 1/2 is a language closely related to the one my parents taught me/I grew up with but I was never formally taught in it. I just picked it up because it’s so close to my native language. However, when I attempt to speak it, I’ll speak in my native language. However, when someone speaks to me in that language, my mind processes everything in that language, I just have a hard time properly verbalizing and distinguishing between it and my native language (it’s Konkani and Marathi for those that are curious).
I had 5 years of Spanish in high school and college. At that time, I was able to think in Spanish -mostly- . I spent some time in Mexico and was able to think in Spanish then.
That was 35 years ago. I can’t do it anymore. Some phrases stick and don’t need an interior monologue translation, but I can’t just easily slide into it like I used to.
English–my first–but I will occasionally swear in French if I’m really irritated.
i’m much the same. i swear in french all the time, though i am really only fluent in english.
i consider myself uniligual (anglo) though i can read french pretty well, and mostly get the gist as a listener of spoken french (as long as it is not overly fast paced, or within the context of a multi-person conversation; especially with considerable slang.) but my ability to actually speak french in any comprehensible manner is quite lacking.
in fact, where i grew up in southwestern ontario, we have a specific term for this: “cereal-box french”.
Something curious to report: I can think in Spanish and English, but when I have to do math I have to think in Spanish.
You assume they are just numbers right? The trouble is when I have to remember my multiplication tables, then my brain freezes so I solve the things in Spanish, luckily then I have to write just numbers for the solution so people don’t notice the extra step I have to do.
It depends what language I am engaged in at the moment of a thought. If I am writing a new set of questions for an English test, then I think in English. If I am reading a Japanese newspaper, then I think in Japanese. If am talking with my family in the US, I think in Spanish.
First thoughts that come to mind when I wake up in the morning are in English.
It depends. At work/in an English speaking environment, definitely English. At home/talking to my brother if he pops into the office to say hi/talking to my mum/things like that, its definitely Kutchi. Science gets thought in English, cooking and the like gets thought in Kutchi.
My best friend is Austrian but has lived in NZ for 20 years, we discussed this last week. She says she thinks in English always but with 2 exceptions; telling her daughter off (daughter is now 18 so this happens rarely) and any kind of mathematics. She said that she is incapable of adding even the most basic numbers in English.
I think in the language I’m using - in other words, if I’m speaking Norwegian, I’ll think in Norwegian, or if I’m writing English, I’ll think in English. If I’m by myself and not really using language otherwise, I generally think in English to the extent that my thoughts are in words. I say generally because if I’m using skills I learned in Norwegian, e.g. skiing or knitting, I think in Norwegian or a mix of the two languages, because I can “get to” the Norwegian vocabulary more easily.
The little flodnaks have been bilingual since birth. Last time I asked the older (who is now 12), he reported that at home he mostly thought in English, and at school he always thought in Norwegian (outside of English class).
Way back when I lived in Hungary, I would dream in either Hungarian or German, depending on which language I’d used the most of during the day. I was an active Hungarian speaker (used it in conversation daily) and a passive German speaker (I am much more capable as a reader or listener than I am as a writer or speaker).
My wife, who is Hungarian, after living in the states for 11 years says she now has to actively check her grammar when she writes because English syntax creeps in but when I asked her the same question as in the OP, she said she still thinks in Hungarian; though like me dreams in both languages.
My four-year-old son easily switches between the two languages. I wonder what is going on in his head. I know that as early as two he was aware he was speaking two different languages but that is a good question for another thread.
I mostly think in English. When I speak Chinese I think in Chinese. When I speak French I attempt to think in French. I think I manage but not very well, but it’s definitely faster than translating into English and back again.
basically whatever language I’m speaking. even in Japanese, which is very rusty and not very good, I think in what I know.
I find myself also thinking in one language and then a “foreign” language word will pop up if I don’t know it in the first language and don’t have a think around. The word that pops up could be any one of 5 or 6 different languages (not that I speak so many languages but sometimes the odd foreign word from Hogan’s Hero’s or some other silly source is just in there.
My roommates reported that when I was studying Chinese at university, I would speak Chinese in my sleep
I don’t quite understand this. I think in “thought” language. It’s not English (I’m not bilingual, but I think this would be true if I was). If I’m writing, I’m obviously translating that thought language into English, but my thoughts don’t have a voice, if you get my drift.
Hebrew/English bi-lingual.
Completely context-dependent. Even phone numbers – some numbers I can recite from memory only in English; if I need to say it in Hebrew I have to ***visualize ***it, and “read it off”… Some only in Hebrew. Some in both… there’s no rhyme or reason to it other than the (lingual) context in which I use that phone number.
Original “thought” (as in, thinking about what I need to do today, what’s happening in my life, whatever…) can also occur in either language, or, more likely, in neither – I often can remember what I thought about and what I decided about it, but not what “language” the process happened in.
Finally someone agrees with me. Ever since becoming profficient in two languages I’ve felt that I can kinda tell as the wrods in my head turn into language-less thoughts and back, and all my friends(even the bilingual ones) would tell me that I am crazy and that you have to think in a certain language. Good to know I am not the only one.
I think in English for the most part, but Spanish when I’m speaking it or if I’m watching soaps on Telemundo (I’m so embarrassed…I’m addicted to those damn things). I have to remind myself to speak English to my husband or kids if they’re on.
It tends to change depending on what I’m doing - mostly English, but if I’m having a conversation in Hindi or Kannada, or have been speaking those languages for a while, I tend to switch to thinking in them. I’m certainly not translating from thinking in English to speaking in Kannada, although sometimes when my vocabulary fails me I know exactly what I want to say in English, but just don’t have the words in Kannada. Most frustrating.
If I was to hazard a guess, though, I’d say perhaps 90% of cogitation is in English - all academic work, teaching, conversations in English.