Can and do you think in more than one language?

[Rum]

When I was a kid I was fluent in Cantonese and I distinctly remember 'thinking' in it. I can recall the world somehow looking different when I thought using it. As I got older I was still fluent but tended to translate from English in my own head first and then speak. Just occasionally I can think in French too when I am there, though I am not as fluent.

I wonder what 'thinking in another language' does to our consciousness. English is very subtle and flexible compared to many languages - including Cantonese which is pretty basic really.

Can you think in more than one language?

[Animavore]

Umberto Eco, who can speak and think in several accents, said (something like) it's like having several souls.

[Pappa]

For a while when I was learning it I used to think in Welsh while I was speaking the language.

[leo-rcc]

I have inner monologues and think in English most of the time. When I'm at work I mostly speak and write English as I work in an American company where the dominant language is English. At home I rarely speak or write Dutch so its sometimes easier not to switch.

[borealis]

Yes.

[Animavore]

I don't remember if I ever thought in Irish. I think I had to translate everything across from the Devil's English in my head in school.

[Rum]

Yes.

bref et au point...

[Bella Fortuna]

I think in a British accent, does that count?

[Ronja]

A couple of weeks ago MiM asked me something about some official document (bank? insurance?) and I commented on the content and started to walk to the kitchen. He then pointed out - in relation to some further detail - that the letter was in Swedish. I had to go back to verify - I had no idea of the language, it simply had not registered. If you had asked me, I would have claimed that I had been reading Finnish.

Does that qualify?

[Robert_S]

I think in a British accent, does that count?

I do too sometimes, and sometimes in a southern drawl and other times in a gangsta dialect.

[maiforpeace]

I can, and lately I've been doing it a lot...I have few opportunities these days to practice my French and German, so I've resorted to talking to myself in those languages instead of in English like I usually do. It comes in extremely handy when Shawn and I are fighting, I can say all kinds of nasty things and he doesn't understand a word.

I don't want to forget either language, and I've also read that people who speak several languages regularly stave off A/D longer than those who don't.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

When I worked in Greece and on the boats in the Med, I use to think in Greeklish quite a bit - basically Greek but with English words filling the gaps where my vocabulary was lacking. It does add a different flavour to the world - with everything having gender, multiple cases, definite articles attached to people, the almost complete lack of nominative pronouns, less reliance on prepositions to qualify verbs and other weirdness. Things like saying "The Maria pleases me" instead of "I like Maria" changed the way you had to think in order to speak naturally.

These days, I just speak English and Dunk.

[Gallstones]

Yes.

[Ian]

I used to be able to think in French. Towards the end of college when I was becoming rather fluent at it I'd notice myself dreaming in it, and sometimes I'd force myself to think with French words rather than English ones in order to help my abilities - in order to do well in my French classes, not because I loved the language so much.

Then I left college and went ten years without an opportunity to use French, and my French language skills have pretty much gone back to the introductory level. Needless to say, I now only think and dream in English.

[hadespussercats]

Nope. I'm embarrassingly mono-linguistic.