If you're multilingual what language do you think in? Is it possible to switch if you acclimate to a new language?

I work with a Russian girl. She speaks very good English. I asked this question once, she said when she gets angry she thinks in Russian. Day to day normal life though, she thinks in English, which I found kinda weird. I couldn’t imagine thinking in another language, even if I were fluent in it.

I’m a native English speaker from the US, but I lived in Japan for many years and learned the language. When I am surrounded by Japanese language, I do not translate in my head. My mind automatically switches to Japanese.

Learning a foreign language is quite possibly the greatest gift one can give to oneself.

Thanks guys, even if no one else responds I got what i wanted out of this question lol

” I do not translate in my head. My mind automatically switches to Japanese. ”

This is pretty much the way the mind works. Symbolically. You can hold the words in your mind, but to speak them it is not as you are thinking them at the same time.

My mother came to America from Germany when in her young twenties and she had an interesting take on this.

She realized that she had finally internalized the English language when she began dreaming in English rather than German.

I don’t know if that helps or not, but that was her experience.

I speak Spanish and Chinese (besides my native English). I find if I am immersed in one language for a time, I begin to think primarily in that language. Of course, I will always be more comfortable and fluent in English, but if I am primarily using another language (even for a short amount of time), it’s not hard to think and talk in it without requiring translation back to English in my head.

I think the answers to your questions will vary from person to person. At what point did I stop having to internally translate things? No idea. One semester I took 5 credits of Chinese and 6 credits of Spanish. Sometimes it was a little crazy speaking Spanish one hour and Chinese the next, but it wasn’t difficult to make the switch and start thinking in the other language when the situation required it.

@Aqua Are you sure you don’t have some sort of super power? Have you been tested recently? You sound amazing to me, I would be careful, Washington doesn’t like alphas, at least that’s what all the tv shows and movies lead me to believe.

@bunnyslippers Positive. No super powers here. Perhaps I should’ve said “it wasn’t too difficult to make the switch.” There were definitely times when I would start speaking to someone, only to have them look at me funny. Then I would realize I was speaking to them in the wrong language and I’d have to re-think what I just said.

When I have to speak English, I think in English. I do not translate.

I am a native german speaker, living in Spain… sometimes I dream in spanish… but… with angry thoughts or counting something, the german wins in my brain…

I learned spanish as an adult… and it will never be as much my language as german is… in german I can express myself more ironic, satiric, harder, softer… in the native language I have more alternatives to chose from.

Sometimes I think in spanish. Or when I remind a conversation I can not surely say in which language we talked… :-)