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The language spoken by the voice in your head?

Signomi

Signomi

    • 7,445
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    This was a thought that popped into my head for a while, I only recently brought it up again with my friends. Nica especially wanted me to make this thread. :)

    I know that there are plenty of people out there who know more than one tongue. I admire you all greatly, because that is still something I'm trying to work upon and am getting there through baby steps.

    However, there is something I've wondered for a while, especially amongst people who have learned English as a second language. Having learned another tongue along with the one you were first taught, perhaps becoming fluent as you continue to develop your speaking skills, what does that say about your thought process? Are you able to speak fluently in English or another language, yet at the same time you think in a language remotely different to the one you most frequently speak?

    I know several friends. One of them is Asian, another is Spanish, another is Italian and one more is Greek. They're friends from college. My asian friend is Pakistani, and had English thrust upon them once having moved to the UK to live with their family. After several years, it's come to the point where they've started speaking AND thinking in English more than they do their native language. Whereas my other friends, whom are Spanish, Italian and Greek, all became accustomed to the English language in similar fashions yet stay true to their native languages when they think to themselves.

    Let me ask you this question, which of these scenarios apply to you? If you've learned more than one language, do you think and contemplate in your native language, or any secondary languages? Do you perhaps alternate between both and somehow manage to rotate them at your own discretion?

    Incidentally, this doesn't only apply to those who know more than one language. As an English speaker, you must at least know English to a good extent. If you were to learn another language, would you ever see yourself becoming more accustomed to that language rather than the one you've used for a very long time? Even to the point where you may start thinking in that language rather than in English?

    I'd love to hear your input.
     
    I was born in a French community and went to a french school so i had to speak French, but I really disliked speaking and learning in french so I always spoke English at home and everywhere else, both my parents are French though and that's how they speak to me sometimes, I understand both English and French well. I don't really think it effects My thought progress much, every voice in my head speaks English.
     
    It depends, I'm English anyway, so I usually speak and think in english, but as I'm learning Japanese, I like to think that way to because it kinda helps to speak it as well.
     
    Even though I'm Filipino, I was born into an English community. This fact may be the reason why I refuse to learn a new language.
     
    I was born in the UK but my family comes from Russia. I think in English and Russian but English is the dominant one. I tend to swear in Russian, though. It just sounds so much more epic!
     
    The voice in my head consists of English and Images
     
    That depends on what language you're currently surrounded with. For me, my native is Filipino and English is my second language, but since I'm in an English speaking country, the voice in my head tend to be English.
     
    English is my primary language, so it's how I think as well as speak most of the time. There will be times when I "think" in the C++ computer language though xD

    I know limited Spanish and VERY limited Japanese, certainly not enough to have coherent thoughts in either language.
     
    My parents are both from Mexico and I was born in Mexico, but I know both English and Spanish very well. I can translate both languages very well too. I do speak a little bit of Italian since I'm still learning.
     
    I'm irish and i was born in the Gaelteacht in Mayo (irish speaking only community) So i consider Irish my first language, but I moved to dublin and i had to learn english, I have limited French and a 7th grade level of japanese. I cant use it on my computer though as my japanese keyboard broke..
    So yeah the voices in my head are Irish english and japanese
     
    English is my native language and it's the language I think in. When I was better in French (ie, I actually liked it), I used to try to think in French sometimes, like when I was walking home from school or something but that was mostly just a phase.

    So just English for me. :(
     
    ...I just tried to think in French and I got a headache.

    The only language I really know is English, so that's the language my inners speak.
     
    I used to ALWAYS think about this as a kid. But anyway, I think in English most of the time, but sometimes (and especially in high school when I took the class), I'd get a little French in there, and eventually they both got jumbled up to where it was nearly half and half. Franglish? Englench? lmao
     
    Sadly, I haven't progressed enough in the languages that I'm learning to actually think in those languages... My French teacher says once you start dreaming in a language, you know you're starting to become fluent. It's kind of hard to imagine though, for some reason. lol
     
    I'm monolingual and this post is English, so given the choice I would think in whatever language I find the most efficient/fastest. Of those I would want to learn, likely Dutch. What I'd most like to do though is consciously think without a language.
     
    Chinese, that happens to be my fluent langauge. Although as I grew up I become more fluent in English as well. Now I am currently taking Japanese too. So I am fluent in two langauges and currently learning another.
     
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