To people who were born speaking a language then moved to somewhere with a different language. Do you find your inner monologue speaking the new language or do you think natively and translate for speech?
I’m American (US) but when I lived in Germany, by the end of two years there I thought in German. I remember it, but there are two anecdotes that underscore it:
- When I returned to the States, I’d occasionally not be able to remember the English word for some things. I lost “trashcan” for a good half hour, once.
- I occasionally talk in my sleep, and for a few years after I returned my wife would sometimes tell me that I was speaking German.
I didn’t spend much time around English speakers when I lived there; I met my wife the year after I returned, and the person I was seeing when I lived in Germany had barely spoken English.
It actually depends. For example, I don’t know why I sometimes find myself thinking in Chinese. I never translate my inner monologue, and when I think, I try to link concepts when learning, so maybe that’s why I feel like my inner monologue is kinda language-agnostic. I just materialize it to realize that I’m thinking, if that makes any sense. (I speak more than 3 languages, Spanish being my native one and English the one I actually use the most.)
I moved to Belgium from England when I was 6, by the time I left for the states at 11 I was thinking and dreaming in Flemish.
By the time I left America at 16 I’d forgotten pretty much all my Flemish.
I do not live in a English speaking country. And my mother tongue is not english.
I still sometimes think in English. As I use it a lot.
Same here. I also found myself trying to express things in my language using English constructs or colloquialisms that don’t have a direct translation. And my English isn’t even that great, but I have to use it daily for work.
My internal monologue is always in my native language but if I need to talk to somebody my brain switches to the language I need so I need no ‘translation’
Depends on the context of what I’m thinking about. I think that is the case for anyone that is truly fluent in more than one language.
Contrary to most people, most of my thoughts are in the form of a dialogue. When it’s a monologue, it’s still a monologue delivered to a crowd. So the language basically depends on who I’m thinking to speak to. Sometimes the mechanism is faulty so I snap out and realize I would never speak English to a certain person.
For context, I’m Italian, living in Germany with an American partner.
depending on how tired / pissed i am. Really tired and or mad and my brain is filled with finnish. In a normal state and it’s mostly in english.
More interesting question IMHO — what language do you dream in?
Things I’m used to talking about in Spanish I usually think about in Spanish, if that makes sense.
Usually none. I only have an inner monologue when I explicitly want to have one and in that case it works just like talking: I can use any language I want.
Not moved anywhere, so born and live in Poland, due to job and entertainment I speak and think both in Polish 🇵🇱 and English 🇪🇺. But more and more I catch myself thinking in English.
I dont think I have an inner monologue. I think in words only when imagining a conversation, or in this case, writing this comment. Otherwise I think in …images maybe?
That’s wild! I can’t imagine having thoughts without an inner monologue. I often wonder how animals think without language and it seems so limited and alien to me. It’s just unimaginable.
Maybe language is what’s limiting you.
Certain topics (mostly household things), I’ll think in Irish.
Or sports… it’s easier for me to think “tá an cailis déanta aige” than “he fouled the player” because my sporting life has generally been through Irish.
Moved very young so inner monologue is in the new language. Also, all my memories from my youth have been translated to the new language. Recent memories of old country are in my native tongue, so idk why the archives got a voiceover.
