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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  3424 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Does your head use multiple languages?

Yes I tend to think in two languages but not at the same time. If I interact with someone in my native tongue, then I'm stuck in that "mode" until I read/listen/speak to someone in English. Then I start thinking in English. For the record, I'm more fluent in English even though I didn't speak a lick of it until age 10 or 11.

Which language I speak in my dreams also tends to vary. If I'm speaking to someone (in a particular dream) who I believe speaks English, then I speak English. Vice versa.





çava  ·  3424 days ago  ·  link  ·  

This is really interesting to me because my dreams are all in French, regardless of who I am speaking with. I totally agree about being stuck in a 'mode,' I refer to it as my French brain, or my English brain (I have guarded in my mind Maori and English as the same language. I can't seem to break this). I am at the point where if someone that I normally speak English with, speaks French to me I find it incredibly difficult to engage my 'french brain' and speak French to them. It's so frustrating!

Hertha  ·  3424 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Like a barricade your mind set up, to keep those languages nice and tidy in separate boxes?

çava  ·  3424 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yes, very similar. It's as though my mind sees the (normally) English speaker, and says "Right! Access all English words and semantics!" And everytime I go to retrieve French I have to actively think, make exact translations, double check my phrases. It's gets tiring, fast. Then, there will be someone right next to them, that I always speak in French with (and sometimes they are native English speakers, but we haven't spoken English together) and there isn't a split second where I think (actively) about what I say. It just flows out. And its so lovely and enjoyable.

girlinwriting  ·  3424 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Very similar for me. My native tongue is Spanish, but I learned English at age nine. If I'm listening to Spanish music, speaking Spanish with someone, etc. my thoughts happen in Spanish. Otherwise, I default to English in most settings. I can only pray in Spanish, though...seriously. It's super weird.

edricarica  ·  3424 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Can confirm: praying is definitely in Spanish. Also, for me, anything with numbers is in Spanish, even though I was taught mathematics in English. Weird.