4 ms·

I speak 2 languages fluently and a few others adequately. I definitely think my behavior is a little different when speaking Spanish versus English, but I don't

by compay 16y ago

I speak 2 languages fluently and a few others adequately. I definitely think my behavior is a little different when speaking Spanish versus English, but I don't think there are any deep-seated psycholinguistic reasons for this - it's more because of cultural differences. An example: in Colombia, when demonstrating the height of a child, you hold your hand vertically, while when talking about the height of an animal, you hold your hand horizontally. If you do the wrong thing, people may assume you're a foreigner and don't know, or they may assume you're just rude. The fact that I learned to hold my hand a certain way when speaking Spanish with Colombians doesn't mean my personality has changed, it means I've absorbed a cultural lesson and if I do it, I do it because I am trying to fit in. The same things goes for the way in which you express yourself with speech. The way you greet people, how long you make small talk before "getting down to business", how to flirt in a bar; all of these things vary a LOT from country to country and if you want to fit in, then you need to pay attention and learn some things. But again, doing that does not mean that your personality has changed; you're just behaving differently. One more thing - as somebody who studied theoretical linguistics and speaks the two languages fluently, any time people start making ridiculously subjective claims about a language like "English, a more unemotional and efficient language than Spanish" - keep in mind you're reading complete bullshit. That's like saying the firewire cable that you use to transfer movies from your video camera is more "artistic" than the USB cable you use to attach your hard drive to your computer. It's confusing the signal with the carrier, and making some pretty subjective claims about the signal too.

hyperbovine 16y ago
That's funny--Colombia was one of the few places I visited during a 9-month trip through Latin America where I was routinely mistaken for a native. (My Spanish is good, but definitely not native.) I chalked it up to people being lighter-skinned (at least in the cities), like me, and also the lack of foreign tourism to accustom people to gringo peculiarities. That, and going to places most tourists didn't bother with (Barranquilla anyone? :) Other places (esp. Cuba) it was much harder to blend. FWIW I definitely feel like a different person when I speak Spanish. But I think that's mostly I have a very wry, subtle sense of humor which does not translate well. Even to other Americans sometimes :)
Shorel 16y ago
"English, a more unemotional and efficient language than Spanish" That claim is because it is usually perceived that lots of words and expressions in English are shorter than their Spanish counterparts. car vs carro dog vs perro lol vs que risa jajajajaja I'm really interested in an expert explanation of why this is complete bullshit.
- compay 16y ago
  First: it's because it's making cultural observations about the people from both places, and trying to somehow say that this is reflected in the language. For the sake of argument, let's just assume the British are "less emotional" than the Argentines (though attending a football match in each country may disabuse you of that idea). This may affect the way people use language, but it does not affect language. Language is a tool that people use to convey their thoughts. The tool not affected by the thoughts it is used to convey. Second: sure, English may have lots of one-syllable words for things that are two syllables in Spanish (though the "lol" example you gave above is spurious because in my experience people just write "jaja."). But English requires more use of pronouns, articles and prepositions than Spanish does: * "No sé" vs. "I don't know" * "No lo vi" vs. "I didn't see it" * "vamos" vs. "let's go" * "saco la mano" "I take out my hand" What's more "efficient?" It's subjective, and at the end of the day an utterly meaningless thing to analyze because trying to extrapolate cultural behaviors from the way a language uses propositions and articles is about as good science as phrenology or astrology. Third: let's assume when people say "efficient" they mean "simpler grammar." People often claim that "Latin is more complex than English" because it has nominal declensions. But because of its declensions, word order in Latin is almost irrelevant. In place of declensions, English uses strict word order to distinguish subjects from objects. Which one is simpler? It's subjective, because your answer will depend on whether you're a native speaker of a language more like Latin or more like English. But if you're writing a program to parse natural language syntax, Latin's "complex" nouns make it a lot easier to parse programmatically than English. What does this say about Roman culture? Nothing. Again, it's the wrong way to look at language - there's no valid reason to draw a connection between grammar and cultural behavior.

by compay 16y ago

hyperbovine 16y ago

That's funny--Colombia was one of the few places I visited during a 9-month trip through Latin America where I was routinely mistaken for a native. (My Spanish is good, but definitely not native.) I chalked it up to people being lighter-skinned (at least in the cities), like me, and also the lack of foreign tourism to accustom people to gringo peculiarities. That, and going to places most tourists didn't bother with (Barranquilla anyone? :) Other places (esp. Cuba) it was much harder to blend. FWIW I definitely feel like a different person when I speak Spanish. But I think that's mostly I have a very wry, subtle sense of humor which does not translate well. Even to other Americans sometimes :)

Shorel 16y ago

"English, a more unemotional and efficient language than Spanish" That claim is because it is usually perceived that lots of words and expressions in English are shorter than their Spanish counterparts. car vs carro dog vs perro lol vs que risa jajajajaja I'm really interested in an expert explanation of why this is complete bullshit.

compay 16y ago
First: it's because it's making cultural observations about the people from both places, and trying to somehow say that this is reflected in the language. For the sake of argument, let's just assume the British are "less emotional" than the Argentines (though attending a football match in each country may disabuse you of that idea). This may affect the way people use language, but it does not affect language. Language is a tool that people use to convey their thoughts. The tool not affected by the thoughts it is used to convey. Second: sure, English may have lots of one-syllable words for things that are two syllables in Spanish (though the "lol" example you gave above is spurious because in my experience people just write "jaja."). But English requires more use of pronouns, articles and prepositions than Spanish does: * "No sé" vs. "I don't know" * "No lo vi" vs. "I didn't see it" * "vamos" vs. "let's go" * "saco la mano" "I take out my hand" What's more "efficient?" It's subjective, and at the end of the day an utterly meaningless thing to analyze because trying to extrapolate cultural behaviors from the way a language uses propositions and articles is about as good science as phrenology or astrology. Third: let's assume when people say "efficient" they mean "simpler grammar." People often claim that "Latin is more complex than English" because it has nominal declensions. But because of its declensions, word order in Latin is almost irrelevant. In place of declensions, English uses strict word order to distinguish subjects from objects. Which one is simpler? It's subjective, because your answer will depend on whether you're a native speaker of a language more like Latin or more like English. But if you're writing a program to parse natural language syntax, Latin's "complex" nouns make it a lot easier to parse programmatically than English. What does this say about Roman culture? Nothing. Again, it's the wrong way to look at language - there's no valid reason to draw a connection between grammar and cultural behavior.