I have 2 questions

1) Can someone who is bilingual think in both of their languages? That means for example if they were bilingual in English and Spanish, they could think to themselves in English or they could think to themselves in Spanish.

2) If in an english maths text book it says...."this is called the product rule"....does that mean that formula is called product rule in the english language and that in other languages the formula is called something else.
Do they teach you the english name for new things because of the dominance of english in research publications in math/science? Like it makes no sense to know the persian name of the product rule formula if no one publishes math research in persian.

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Anyone?

Original post by ghajok45

Anyone?

In answer to your first question. My father is from Iran and when I asked him this a while ago he said he thinks in both it just depends who he's talking too. If he's talking to his Iranian Family he'll think in Persian, if he's talking to other people he'll think in English. In terms of what he thinks to himself when he's not talking to people, it depends on what he's doing for example if he's doing something with numbers it'll be in Persian but most thoughts are English.

Reply 3

ghajok45

Original post by AK201296

Thanks for such a quick and great reply.

I'm guessing he has the ability to think in both, so he uses it I guess.

I think he thinks in persian when speaking in persian because he knows he needs to formulate his reply in persian, so thinking in the same language you are speaking is easier I guess.

Thinking on his own, I would have thought he would think in his stronger language, with the option to think in the weaker language (if he wanted to for whatever reason).

Reply 4

Kevin De Bruyne

Original post by ghajok45

2) If in an english maths text book it says...."this is called the product rule"....does that mean that formula is called product rule in the english language and that in other languages the formula is called something else

Not necessarily. The english word could be used in another language if they don't decide to translate it for whatever reason, or they want to use the original word. Eg L'Hôpital's rule is not English but it is used here.

Do they teach you the english name for new things because of the dominance of english in research publications in math/science?

They teach you (the target audience) the english name because you speak english, and the textbook is in english.

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(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 5

ghajok45

Original post by SeanFM

Not necessarily. The english word could be used in another language if they don't decide to translate it for whatever reason.

They teach you (the target audience) the english name because you speak english, and the textbook is in english.

:

Thanks for the reply.

I agree sometimes words aren't translated, but usually they are, are they not? Like from the english "product rule" would definitely need to change for arabic because of the different alphabet and even text direction.

I would have thought the point of teaching in english is because international research in math is published in english 99% of the time? Like even when they teach math is say france, they must also teach them the english name if they plan to study math at a much higher level?

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Original post by SeanFM

original word. Eg L'Hôpital's rule is not English but it is used here.

That's a name though. A better analogy would be Bremsstrahlung.

Reply 9

ghajok45

Original post by morgan8002

That's a name though. A better analogy would be Bremsstrahlung.

So they use the german word in english text? But would other languages mention that it's called Bremsstrahlung in english as 99% of science research is published in english?

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 10

username1560589

Original post by ghajok45

So they use the german word in english text?

Yeah, for some terms. For others the English and German are different and for others the English term is used in German text. Same with French etc.. My guess is that it'd be the same in Persian, but adopted terms would need to be spelled in their alphabet.

Reply 11

ghajok45

Original post by morgan8002

What's surprising is that non english language wikipedia's mention what the term is called in german, usually they tell you what it's called in english because of the dominance of english in higher education and research.

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Original post by ghajok45

I can't recall seeing this. You could easily find out the translation if you wanted to, even by switching language in Wikipedia.

Reply 14

ghajok45

Original post by morgan8002

I can't recall seeing this. You could easily find out the translation if you wanted to, even by switching language in Wikipedia.

https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A3%D8%B4%D8%B9%D8%A9_%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%83%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%AD

^^ for example, the arabic wikipedia tells you what it's called in german. Makes no sense when science is written in english most of the time?

Reply 15

username1560589

Original post by ghajok45

I think it would normally be the English translation given, but in this case the English inherits from German so they give the German. As I said earlier, it doesn't need to be there since you can find out the translation easily, but it's not particularly surprising that it is there.

Reply 16

The_JoKeR

Original post by ghajok45

1) I tend to only think in one language since its much simpler compared to the other one.

Reply 17

ghajok45

Original post by morgan8002

Yeah that makes sense, even though they should be putting the english name for sure.

Reply 18

ghajok45

Original post by The_JoKeR

1) I tend to only think in one language since its much simpler compared to the other one.

What languages do you speak?
Do you have the ability to think in your other language even though you predominantly think in one language?

Reply 19

ghajok45

So you can choose which language you want to think in?

Like even though you think in english now, you could make yourself think in your mother tongue if you wanted?

Sorry what is your mother tongue if I may ask.