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Forums - General Discussion - Bilingual people: What language do you *think* in??

I think in both the languages. There are people i only talk to in a certain language. So if i am in that company of people or dreaming about them. I think in that language. It flip flops.



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I'm fluent in 3 and I think in all 3 of them depending on which setting I am in. For example, if I am around spanish speakers all my thoughts are in spanish, same for the other two.



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In serbian, sometimes in english



Xen said:

I know Russian (parents' lang amd my mother tongue), English (unofficial mother tongue), Hebrew (I live in Israel), and some French.
I think in Russian.


That's awesome man! I'm taking Russian classes in University and I really want to become fluent in Russian so I can go back again.

I'm not bilingual yet so of course I only think in English (unless I'm doing work for Russian class). 



Troll_Whisperer said:
hatmoza said:
Frankly, I think the people who are saying they think purely without words are full of shit. But that's just me.

The example of food Trollwhisperer provided above is true, and I'm sure there are many other instances of thinking with "feelings". But don't tell me, someone who speaks several languages doesn't have words going through their minds when they're working through their thoughts. That's absurd.

In my personal opinion, that would only be true if you were living by yourself on an island your whole life. If anything, the formation of words and languages helped develop cognitive abilities throughout history. Ever heard of constructivism in education? The idea of constructivism is pretty big in schools these days and it's basically the concept of how we build on past knowledge to increase our learning skills ... mainly thinking.

You're right, it's definitely just you.

Don't believe me, but it's 100% true. I really only think with words when I read or write those words. Why would I and several other people be lying?

I can easily find a few discussions online about this and you'll find many people think in concepts:

http://intjforum.com/showthread.php?t=24280

http://www.healthboards.com/boards/showthread.php?t=844786

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/8gu1p/do_you_think_in_words/

http://able2know.org/topic/175479-1

 

Edit: Actually, I'm gonna ask you: what do you tell yourself? In what situations do you think in words? Can you give me examples? I'm curious about this.

Notice how I said "purely without words." I'm very familiar with different learning styles and how they can be associated with thinking. I'm well aware that some people lean towards being visual learners/thinkers. However, my argument (and again this is a personal opinion) is that as long as you know a language, you will have a stream of words going through your head at any given time.

I believe that you are  predominantly a visual/abstract thinker. But I absolutely refuse to believe that that completely substitutes words.



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hatmoza said:
Troll_Whisperer said:
hatmoza said:
Frankly, I think the people who are saying they think purely without words are full of shit. But that's just me.

The example of food Trollwhisperer provided above is true, and I'm sure there are many other instances of thinking with "feelings". But don't tell me, someone who speaks several languages doesn't have words going through their minds when they're working through their thoughts. That's absurd.

In my personal opinion, that would only be true if you were living by yourself on an island your whole life. If anything, the formation of words and languages helped develop cognitive abilities throughout history. Ever heard of constructivism in education? The idea of constructivism is pretty big in schools these days and it's basically the concept of how we build on past knowledge to increase our learning skills ... mainly thinking.

You're right, it's definitely just you.

Don't believe me, but it's 100% true. I really only think with words when I read or write those words. Why would I and several other people be lying?

I can easily find a few discussions online about this and you'll find many people think in concepts:

http://intjforum.com/showthread.php?t=24280

http://www.healthboards.com/boards/showthread.php?t=844786

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/8gu1p/do_you_think_in_words/

http://able2know.org/topic/175479-1

 

Edit: Actually, I'm gonna ask you: what do you tell yourself? In what situations do you think in words? Can you give me examples? I'm curious about this.

Notice how I said "purely without words." I'm very familiar with different learning styles and how they can be associated with thinking. I'm well aware that some people lean towards being visual learners/thinkers. However, my argument (and again this is a personal opinion) is that as long as you know a language, you will have a stream of words going through your head at any given time.

I believe that you are  predominantly a visual/abstract thinker. But I absolutely refuse to believe that that completely substitutes words.

As I said I only hear the words in my head when reading/writing (although faintly and accompanied by the images I picture) and perhaps when remembering/imagining conversations. If you don't want to believe me, whatever...

I just asked my girlfriend and she actually laughed at the concept of thinking with words. She said it would be 'time consuming'. So at least I know I'm not weird...

I seriously always thought that only happened in movies/series, when you hear the character's mind's sentences while they gesticulate. I never until know believed people actually do that (and apparently a majority).

Can you give me some examples of what you tell yourself?



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I'm fluent in danish (my native language) and english, but I don't really pay attention to what language I think in. I think I think mostly in danish, with some english thoughts from time to time, but it's really just guesswork.



Troll_Whisperer said:

Edit: Actually, I'm gonna ask you: what do you tell yourself? In what situations do you think in words? Can you give me examples? I'm curious about this.

I don't know about moza but after thinking about it (lolpun) I think people experience a mixture of both

For instance while thinking about your post and how I was going to reply to it, I thought in words 100%, just assembling ideas and sentences with thought. Also, I can intentionally think about something and it'll feel like me talking

I also realized that I don't actually stop and think about much throughout my day, if at all. If a random thought does happen to pop up in my head (especially if unintentional) then it usually represents itself as an idea/concept rather than words/sentences, especially if the corresponding word is unknown/hard to describe, like the face of a pretty girl whose name I didn't know, the word girl didn't pop into my head either, just the face. Regarding feelings like hunger/thirst or heat/cold and the sort, I doubt most people would think up sentences for that stuff either

One example is just now I was thinking of what I was going to have for breakfast tomorrow, the idea of sunny side up eggs with a runny yolk immediately popped into my head but my corresponding word for that thought was just 'eggs'. When I remembered that I wanted extra salt I saw salt and thought 'salt'. Is it different for you?

OT: The fact that the words were 'eggs' and 'salt' means I was thinking in english lol



Welsh but no one here knows what that is.



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Marks said:
Xen said:

I know Russian (parents' lang amd my mother tongue), English (unofficial mother tongue), Hebrew (I live in Israel), and some French.
I think in Russian.


That's awesome man! I'm taking Russian classes in University and I really want to become fluent in Russian so I can go back again.

I'm not bilingual yet so of course I only think in English (unless I'm doing work for Russian class).

Good luck and SPEAK with native speakers LOTS. Russian is a pretty crazy language, and only speaking it will hand you the reins of control, mainly thanks to the big conjugation, suffix, and intonation focus in it.