OK, a good friend is from Guatemala and obviously speaks Spanish, but English too. I asked, “when you’re thinking to yourself, what language are you think in?” and she never really gave me a straight answer.
So, I ask you, fine dopers, when you’re thinking to yourself (simple thoughts like, I need to take a shower soon or I need some eggs and milk today), what language are you thinking to yourself in?
I personally think that I would think to myself in my native language, no matter how much I use another language, right? How does this work for you/
My mind does not think in words. It thinks in pictures. I try to practice my Spanish by putting thoughts (silently) into Spanish, but that is not the same thing. I never understood how people could say they dream in words either.
How weird. When I saw the thread title, I thought, “he’s gonna ask what language they think in,” and I have no freakin’ clue why I thought that, but it looks like I was right. Huh. Might be a good day to buy a lottery ticket or something.
Anyway, I asked my French teacher this very question back in high school, and she said that she goes back and forth between the languages in her thoughts.
I think in both English and French. The French comes out more when I’m speaking it more often, so since moving to the States I’ve been thinking more and more in English, but some French sneaks in too. Mostly when I’m very emotional - either mad, or close to tears, that sort of thing.
I don’t think I’m fluent in Spanish anymore, but when I was, like **DigitalC **, I would think in the language I’d been using most recently. I am a very verbal person and definitely dream at least partly in words, and in Spanish words when I was immersed in Spanish.
Depends on which language I’ve been using most and the mood.
For example, today I’m pretty pissed at my boss (who’s Spanish like me) and right now I’m thinking in Spanish even though I normally think in English when I write in English. My brain apparently pouts in Spanish
I’d say that, if I am, or have been, immersed in English (like right now, when I’m on the Dope) – I probably think in English.
In everyday life, I’m immersed in Hebrew, so that’s what I think in.
Or at least so I imagine.
I’m trying to recall what language I think in when I’m immersed in a third milieu – e.g., when I was in France for two weeks a while back, so I was practicing my smattering of French, using a lot of English when this didn’t work, but also a lot of Hebrew communicating with the rest of the family. And I’m drawing a blank.
like several other posters, I have a feeling that our internal thoughts aren’t really “in a language,” and we just retcon them, as it were, to a convenient language if and when we need to “externalize” them.
I asked my old work friend from Bangladesh the same question. He just laughed at me and said that he thinks and dreams in his native language. Although he did say his dreams were using the type that didnt need words! Gosh I miss him!
We sort of discussed this in a recent thread in GQ. I now almost exclusively think in English, but if I spend a significant amount of time in Poland, I will start thinking and dreaming in Polish (technically, Polish is my first language, but I was born and grew up in the US, so English is clearly my primary language.) Even in languages I’m not fluent in, I will find myself thinking or holding an internal dialogue in some grammatically flawed version of that language if I spent significant time immersed in that language.
I speak Spanish most of the day at work, so while I don’t really think in Spanish, on the way home from work I talk out loud to myself in Spanish, or if I get a phone call from my husband, I’ll start talking to him in Spanish without really thinking about it. I also tend to dream in Spanish. My fluency in my dreams is often far superior to my ability to speak in real life.
But the vast majority of my thinking and dreaming is in English. Which makes sense, given I’m only a student of Spanish and haven’t grown up speaking it in a household or anything.
Just for background, I grew up speaking English, German and Danish, and would describe any and all of those as being my “mother tongue”. I’ve also learnt French and a bit of Swedish/Swiss German along the way.
This is one of the most common questions multilingual speakers get (no cite, based purely on my own and my multilingual friend’s experiences), and it’s also the hardest to answer.
If you’re thinking moment-to-moment “thought reactions” such as Gee, it sure is cold in here, then I’m not sure language can be used for that thought process, it’s more an intuitive, emotional BRR than anything else.
If it’s verbalised thought as opposed to impressions, then I’d have to say it depends on what is going on at the time. While I was growing up, it was English with Mom, Danish with Dad and German outside the home, so depending on who I was speaking to, the “little voice of reason” changed, (but again, I’d argue based on my own warped mind that thoughts in full words are relatively uncommon, and most of our “thought processes” are intuitive/emotive).
Nowadays, my thoughts tend to be organised by topic, and a language is allocated to that. So any thoughts on current classes are in English since that’s what I’m studying in, any thoughts related to sailing, for example are in German since I predominantly sail with a German crew, and… Well, suffice it to say then when I’m in the bedroom, it tends to cme out in Danish no matter who I’m with. Ahem.
Hope that helps at all, I’m now off to read the other thread (I’ve been missing a while, so I couldn’t chime in then)!
For me it depends on the content of what I’m saying/thinking. I NEVER curse in Korean, but I will sometimes speak Korean if I’m startled. Also who I’m speaking to. I’m fluent in both Korean and English, but if I know my listener is also bilingual I tend to start mixing them up in my speech. If I had to assign a language to my thoughts, I would definitely say English. I learned Korean first, but English has been my primary language ever since I started preschool.
Same with me, except substitute English, French or Arabic (German not so much anymore) - it all depends on what language I have been using. When I had been living in Germany for about 9 months and visited friends in France, I went through an awkward mental adjustment stage for about 3-5 days of thinking in German and translating into French! English just didn’t enter the equation!
