| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Poll: Do you ever find yourself thinking in a mixture of languages? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Do you ever find yourself thinking in a mixture of languages?".
View the poll results »
| | | | Ty Kendall 
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:41
Hebrew to English
| Dave Bindon
Greece
Local time: 22:41
Greek to English
In memoriam
Talking to myself would be far less interesting if I always replied in the same language.
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Certain expressions have a lot more meaning in Japanese, Catalan or English than in Spanish, but also the other way around.
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Yesterday I received an e-mail in which a Brazilian relative code-switched 5 times between Portuguese and English. The whole family is like that, and I have fallen into the pattern.
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 21:41
Spanish to English
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Sometimes it's an effort not to! And as Paula says, some things just sound better or seem more meaningful from the point of view of one language or culture.
PS: Interestingly, I've noticed how I tend to swear in different languages in different situations too...
[Edited at 2012-05-20 10:11 GMT]
| | | | Julian Holmes
Japan
Local time: 04:41
Member (2011)
Japanese to English
Strictly speaking, not a "mixture" per se. If I did, I would have trouble getting it right when I'm speaking or translating.
Was the question meant to be "Do you ever find yourself switching between two languages when you think?"
It's either one or the other. I do find that sometimes I'm a different "me" when I think in my other language -- very much like Jekyll  and Hyde  ... See more
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Like Julian says it's more a question of switching than mixing, but each time I need to do a quick calculation in my head, such as six times nine, I have to actually say those numbers silently in my mind in Portuguese...
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neilmac wrote:
PS: Interestingly, I've noticed how I tend to swear in different languages in different situations too...
[Edited at 2012-05-20 10:11 GMT]
I almost never swear in Portuguese because it feels wrong to me, but I do swear in French or in English...
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 20:41
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
| I remember in the wrong language | May 20, 2012 |
I do find it confusing when, for example, I think back over a phone conversation, thinking "he said this, that and the other", only to realise that I'm remembering the conversation in French when the person only speaks English. Talk of putting words into someone's mouth!
But I don't particularly want my thinking to be too ordered - if you can't let your thoughts wander then it's a pretty sad existence. If I have to pu... See more I do find it confusing when, for example, I think back over a phone conversation, thinking "he said this, that and the other", only to realise that I'm remembering the conversation in French when the person only speaks English. Talk of putting words into someone's mouth!
But I don't particularly want my thinking to be too ordered - if you can't let your thoughts wander then it's a pretty sad existence. If I have to put my thoughts into words and the language matters (sometimes it doesn't) then I can make sure all the words come out in the right language. After all, that's what I do!
Sheila ▲ Collapse
| | | | John Cutler
Spain
Local time: 21:41
Spanish to English
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| Thinking, etc. | May 20, 2012 |
I'm surrounded by 3 different languages all day long, so I find myself thinking, speaking and dreaming in a mixture of languages. They're all so natural at this point that I almost don't notice changing from one to the other. My most embarrasing experience was when I was working as a tour guide giving a bilingual consecutively translated explanation in English and Catalan of local Roman ruins. I finished a brief explanation and then drew a complete blank as to which language I had said it in. I... See more I'm surrounded by 3 different languages all day long, so I find myself thinking, speaking and dreaming in a mixture of languages. They're all so natural at this point that I almost don't notice changing from one to the other. My most embarrasing experience was when I was working as a tour guide giving a bilingual consecutively translated explanation in English and Catalan of local Roman ruins. I finished a brief explanation and then drew a complete blank as to which language I had said it in. I had to stop and ask the crowd what language I had just been using. ▲ Collapse
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But it is related to the person I am talking to, or subject-related. I use four languages on a daily basis and switch easily from the one to the other and am trained to answer in the other person's language. At home I think in a mixture of language depending on the subject but can only do my work in my native language. As files come often in two languages, and especially when I am tired, it happens that I am translating from my native language into my native language (just rephrasing...)
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Helen Hagon
Local time: 20:41
Member (2011)
Russian to English
+ ...
My family only speak English, so I only ever use other languages outside of my family environment in specific work or social situations. Therefore I find it fairly easy to 'compartmentalise' the languages in my head.
On the subject of swearing, though, I have a multilingual friend who swears in different languages. If she swears in French she is mildly annoyed, if she uses Flemish she is quite angry, but when she uses Maltese it is time to take cover!
| | | | Thayenga
Germany
Local time: 21:41
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
| Not only thinking... | May 20, 2012 |
Thinking and speaking in a mixture of the languages I - and most people around me - speak, almost comes "natural". Not even writing the grocery list in which language comes first to mind for the items is anything "unnatural". However, things can be a little trick - and very funny - when I use the words that come to my mind first, but none of those present at that time speak that particular language.
| | | | | mostly in writing! | May 20, 2012 |
I often find that I'll read an email or something else written in Spanish, and even though I'm looking at the Spanish words, I'm reading in English. Does that make sense? I guess my brain just starts translating automatically so by the time I'm actually thinking about it, it's already in the other language.
I have been known to ask my husband, who does not speak or read any other languages, to take a look at correspondence, only to have him tell me it's in another language!
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