4 ms·

For the last 8 years or so I've been communicating primarily using global English. I moved overseas a few times, my partner comes from another country, and besi

For the last 8 years or so I've been communicating primarily using global English. I moved overseas a few times, my partner comes from another country, and besides talking to my family I rarely use my native language. My inner voice mostly switched to English, too. There's one negative side effect I've noticed - I feel less smart than before. I'm not sure if it's a real thing or not, but I feel I can't fully express myself in English. I consider myself quite a fluent speaker, but my vocabulary is still quite limited compared to my native language. It's enough for 99% of the conversation I have, but whenever I say or think something, I have this feeling that I lack words to precisely express what I want.

c2h5oh 5y ago
> There's one negative side effect I've noticed - I feel less smart than before. I'm not sure if it's a real thing or not, but I feel I can't fully express myself in English. I consider myself quite a fluent speaker, but my vocabulary is still quite limited compared to my native language. It's enough for 99% of the conversation I have, but whenever I say or think something, I have this feeling that I lack words to precisely express what I want. I've got the very same problem. The frustration at the lack of precision of my communication is what kills me. I suspect it's perception only and caused by the fact that my native language has more expressive grammar that allows entire "She would have gone" sentence be expressed as a single word - a conjugated verb - and include 100% of the information of the one in English.
dgellow 5y ago
Just so you know, it's not just you. I switched to using English since ~6 years, and almost never use my native language (Swiss French) anymore outside of exchanges with old friends and family. I feel that my clarity of thoughts took quite a hit. And thinking in my native language now requires a lot of effort as I got used to construct my thoughts in English. On top of this I currently live in Germany, when I speak with my life partner (native German speaker) it is mostly in English, with some German words, and a few random French words and idioms I have no idea how to translate, so we have a tendency to reuse the same limited vocabulary just because it is easier to communicate.
- mateo1 5y ago
  I know what you mean. It appears that conscious thought is intertwined with language and greatly affected by it. I'm not quite sure how or why, I think some concepts and patterns of thought (maybe memories?) are linked with something language-specific, perhaps the words themselves. But at any rate it negatively affects my ability to think the same way, with the same clarity and speed as before. I've recently been trying to use my native language more to revert my inner monologue back to my native tongue. It does hurt my eloquence in English but I don't care.
KptMarchewa 5y ago
>I feel less smart than before This definitely resonates with me when I use english. My spoken English is limited by the fact that I have perfectly laid out sentence in mind, which sometimes is just missing the key word. I try to remember which one for a few seconds, then I default to something that is not quite right, or just describe the word I was trying to use. This ends up sounding very stupid, as it would be very okay if I just did not use the word in the first place. It's directly mirroring the way I use written English, where if you miss a word you can just go back a few seconds later and fill in the blanks. Still, I try to write more fluently and not obsess over small details - I think it's way worse for me when I spend long minutes or hours trying to craft perfect sentences, when "slightly worse would do trick". Tangentially, I try to not give fuck about pronounciation. I'll never learn how to say "cucumber" naturally.
- throwaway2037 5y ago
  Your expression "slightly worse would do trick" is very similar to the engineering expression: Do not let perfect be the enemy of good!
- WastingMyTime89 5y ago
  Are you living in an English speaking country and using English all the time? What you are describing sounds like how I felt for my first three months in England. I stopped feeling this way when I started thinking entirely in English and actually became fluent. It was quite nice because it also marked the end of my daily headaches in the evening. I had no idea about how physically painful immersion would be before moving there.
  - KptMarchewa 5y ago
    No, but I work using English and speak regularly in that language, including native speakers, for at least 30 minutes every working day. Usually longer. Maybe I would need way more for short term.
    - WastingMyTime89 5y ago
avgcorrection 5y ago
Nothing hurts the HNer more than feeling less smart.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

c2h5oh 5y ago

> There's one negative side effect I've noticed - I feel less smart than before. I'm not sure if it's a real thing or not, but I feel I can't fully express myself in English. I consider myself quite a fluent speaker, but my vocabulary is still quite limited compared to my native language. It's enough for 99% of the conversation I have, but whenever I say or think something, I have this feeling that I lack words to precisely express what I want. I've got the very same problem. The frustration at the lack of precision of my communication is what kills me. I suspect it's perception only and caused by the fact that my native language has more expressive grammar that allows entire "She would have gone" sentence be expressed as a single word - a conjugated verb - and include 100% of the information of the one in English.

dgellow 5y ago

Just so you know, it's not just you. I switched to using English since ~6 years, and almost never use my native language (Swiss French) anymore outside of exchanges with old friends and family. I feel that my clarity of thoughts took quite a hit. And thinking in my native language now requires a lot of effort as I got used to construct my thoughts in English. On top of this I currently live in Germany, when I speak with my life partner (native German speaker) it is mostly in English, with some German words, and a few random French words and idioms I have no idea how to translate, so we have a tendency to reuse the same limited vocabulary just because it is easier to communicate.

mateo1 5y ago
I know what you mean. It appears that conscious thought is intertwined with language and greatly affected by it. I'm not quite sure how or why, I think some concepts and patterns of thought (maybe memories?) are linked with something language-specific, perhaps the words themselves. But at any rate it negatively affects my ability to think the same way, with the same clarity and speed as before. I've recently been trying to use my native language more to revert my inner monologue back to my native tongue. It does hurt my eloquence in English but I don't care.

KptMarchewa 5y ago

>I feel less smart than before This definitely resonates with me when I use english. My spoken English is limited by the fact that I have perfectly laid out sentence in mind, which sometimes is just missing the key word. I try to remember which one for a few seconds, then I default to something that is not quite right, or just describe the word I was trying to use. This ends up sounding very stupid, as it would be very okay if I just did not use the word in the first place. It's directly mirroring the way I use written English, where if you miss a word you can just go back a few seconds later and fill in the blanks. Still, I try to write more fluently and not obsess over small details - I think it's way worse for me when I spend long minutes or hours trying to craft perfect sentences, when "slightly worse would do trick". Tangentially, I try to not give fuck about pronounciation. I'll never learn how to say "cucumber" naturally.

throwaway2037 5y ago
Your expression "slightly worse would do trick" is very similar to the engineering expression: Do not let perfect be the enemy of good!
WastingMyTime89 5y ago
Are you living in an English speaking country and using English all the time? What you are describing sounds like how I felt for my first three months in England. I stopped feeling this way when I started thinking entirely in English and actually became fluent. It was quite nice because it also marked the end of my daily headaches in the evening. I had no idea about how physically painful immersion would be before moving there.
- KptMarchewa 5y ago
  No, but I work using English and speak regularly in that language, including native speakers, for at least 30 minutes every working day. Usually longer. Maybe I would need way more for short term.
  - WastingMyTime89 5y ago

avgcorrection 5y ago

Nothing hurts the HNer more than feeling less smart.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]