Can bilinguals think in both of their languages?

So do you think in Italian or English most of the time and why? Can you consciously choose your thinking language? Can you think in any other languages?

I'll give you the basics now.

1. If you are basically fluent then yes, you can think in either language.

2. The language you naturally think in depends on which language you feel closer to and the situation. E.g. if you live in UK and are surrounded by English people, you will think in English. If you go visit France and are surrounded by people speaking French, you will switch to thinking in French.

This is simply because some words don't have translations or cannot be interpreted the same way so it is easier to respond if you are thinking in that language. So our brains adapt and switch.

3. Yes, you can willingly switch between the languages you think in if you want.

4. The age you learned the language does not really matter, it is the level of fluency which matters. Obviously, if you learned it at younger age, you will probably be more proficient in it compared to a language you started learning 1 year ago.

Interesting facts:
1.The accents people have while speaking a different language appear mostly because the tongue and mouth are used to certain movements. That is why people from the same country have similar accents. Example, Russian language is, what I like to call, a hard language (as in, hard in the sounds while French or English have pretty soft sounds). So when Russians speak English, they are used to the hardness and harshness of Russian and find I hard to add the softness that English requires.

2. The more interesting thing to investigate is how speaking in different languages affect personality. There have been studies that the same person speaking in one language may act more polite, change their tone of voice to a higher pitch. And when speaking in another, they will act harsher and change their tone to a lower pitch.

So here is my question....

If you speak only english, you will think in english. If you speak only spanish, you will think in spanish. If you speak spanish and english fluently, say being bilingual from birth, can you think in both languages?

I can speak English and Polish fluently, and at one point I just realised that I think in English. I can choose which language I want to think in, but when I'm not focusing on it I just automatically think in English.

So if someone spoke English and French fluently, say born bilingual....they could choose their thinking language? As in one moment be thinking in English and the next be thinking in French?

1) Can you think in Polish?

2) Can you think in English?

3) What age did you learn both languages?

4) Can you think in any other language?

1 +2) Yes3) Polish .. Well it's my mother tongue. I learned English when I was 84) Nope. But I'll be studying Russian at uni so I'll let you know how it goes

1) Can you think in Vietnamese?

2) Can you think in English?

3) What age did you learn both languages?

4) Can you think in any other language?

I can speak English and Polish fluently, and at one point I just realised that I think in English. I can choose which language I want to think in, but when I'm not focusing on it I just automatically think in English.

I speak English and German. I can think in both.

What age did you learn both languages? Can you think in any other language?

From birth. No I can only speak English and German.

German Mother/ English Father? Were you born in the UK or Germany?

Yes my dad is German and my mom is English, I was born in the UK.

So do you guys speak German at home? How did you pick up German?