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I wonder what degree of bilingualism is necessary. When I speak English, I think in English. When I speak Chinese, I think in Chinese. When I speak French, I th
by Shenglong 15y ago
I wonder what degree of bilingualism is necessary. When I speak English, I think in English. When I speak Chinese, I think in Chinese. When I speak French, I think in English.
Moreover, when I speak to my parents, I can weave together English and Chinese to speak in the most efficient and accurate way. Those of you who have two native languages will probably understand what I mean. Some languages lack words to describe certain situations, and other languages are much more direct in describing them. Do we call this amalgamation of languages a third language, then?
I think there needs to be a distinction based on varying levels of fluency; I see it as a major contributing factor.
- evincarofautumn 15y agoI agree the issue is more nuanced than it’s made out to be. I’m still not sure there is a useful, clear-cut distinction between native and second language, at least not for everybody. I speak English and French natively, but I don’t think in either. I just think; in words sometimes, but mostly in spatial terms, colours, images, sounds, that sort of thing. I only started studying Chinese a few years ago, but I’ve never had the oft-bemoaned second-language problem of thinking in one tongue and mentally translating to another. Sure, there are words you don’t know, but you can always just talk around them, right?
- jvrossb 15y agoThis has been my experience as well. Grew up speaking English and French, am 100% bilingual, could not tell you which I think in. I think thoughts occur at a level of abstraction one step above language. When I started learning Chinese I also wasn't constantly translating, I just had a limited breadth and depth of topics in which could express my thoughts through Chinese.
- Shenglong 15y agoI'm not talking about basic thoughts. I mean, when you trace logic in your head, one language or another appears.
- visarga 15y agoThis is a useful test: do a multiplication, say... 12*15, in your head. In what language did you do it? Usually we tend to revert to the primary language for math.
- 3pt14159 15y agoYou are like me, but most people think in words, not abstract micro-fast videos & kinetics. It made learning French hard for me because people focused on English <=> French. After years of struggling I learned French in about 4 weeks actually in Quebec (northern part) where I was surrounded by actual poulets rôtis and no English translator around and everything clicked.
- frooxie 15y agoI don't think in any language either, but I often have trouble translating my wordless thoughts into any words at all, even if it's my native language.
- personlurking 15y ago"Some languages lack words to describe certain situations, and other languages are much more direct in describing them." It's called code-switching in linguistic terms.
- nihilocrat 15y agoWhat you are doing is called code-switching: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching