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How many languages can you think in?

How many languages can you think in?

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Does British English and American English count as two separate languages?
Original post by HowToBeABlobfish
Does British English and American English count as two separate languages?

When they must, they do! In this case, yes :yes:
British, English, American, Polish and Idiot.
Reply 4
One. And barely that sometoimes :rolleyes:
There are a couple of things that I can automatically come up with in other languages without taking deliberate steps to translate, but just like saying thanks or excuse me or "I don't speak french" in french. Not exactly thinking in another language.
Although saying "I speak french" in french does help to one up smug kids when they start boasting their language skills to the ski instructor in english. I can't follow it up to save my life, but for one glorious moment I outdid them and that was sweet. :u:
Original post by Kindred
One. And barely that sometoimes :rolleyes:
There are a couple of things that I can automatically come up with in other languages without taking deliberate steps to translate, but just like saying thanks or excuse me or "I don't speak french" in french. Not exactly thinking in another language.
Although saying "I speak french" in french does help to one up smug kids when they start boasting their language skills to the ski instructor in english. I can't follow it up to save my life, but for one glorious moment I outdid them and that was sweet. :u:

That is petty and awesome. I LOVE IT :proud:
Reply 6
3 eng span & frnch:wink: somtimes a mix of it all + other languages
Just 1 for me, sadly, although the odd word or phrase is more thoroughly cemented in another language. So I'll catch myself thinking some frankenstein's monster of a sentence and have to fix it to be complete English. :redface:
English and Cantonese, my mandarin is quite poor so I have to translate it back to English in my head.
I can't fluently think in french but I sometimes mix up french and english words and translate them without thinking. :smile:
3. English, Hindi and Marathi.
Reply 11
bump
Reply 12
Original post by esrever
3. English, Hindi and Marathi.


What is your default thinking language? What age did you learn them?
Reply 13
One. I'm sure you can guess which.
Original post by hj232
What is your default thinking language? What age did you learn them?


Learnt English at age 3 (even though got fluent many years later). Marathi is my mother tongue. Learnt Hindi at age 7.

My default language for think was Marathi until around age 13 when I started making conscious efforts to think in English (in order to improve).
3.

English, Japanese and Bengali.

I grew up as a multilingual fluent in English and Bengali as well as understanding completely but not being able to speak/write/read Hindi and Urdu.

I grew up watching Japanese animation even though I didn't understand the language and relied solely on the subtitles. In primary school I studied French; in high school I studied French and Spanish; and, at university I studied Japanese, French and Spanish. My level of English greatly decreased at university even though it was my best subject at high school and I was always considered to be well-spoken.

I spent a year studying in Tokyo during my undergraduate degree. During this time, my thinking voice shifted to Japanese and my general level of English and Bengali decreased so much so that I struggled communicating with family and friends back home.

As soon as I graduated university, I went to Japan for work where I stayed for a year. I had many foreign colleagues and spoke quite a bit of English at this time, so my level of English didn't decline like it had done during my previous stay in Japan.

These days I'm situated in the UK and as a result I mostly think in English. In Japan, my thinking voice changes to Japanese. I used to think in Bengali when I was a child until the age of around 14 or 15.

Since my year studying in Japan during my undergraduate degree, my dreams have shifted to being in Japanese which they are even now.
(edited 5 years ago)
Reply 16
Original post by esrever
Learnt English at age 3 (even though got fluent many years later). Marathi is my mother tongue. Learnt Hindi at age 7.

My default language for think was Marathi until around age 13 when I started making conscious efforts to think in English (in order to improve).

what is the default now?
Reply 17
Original post by Themysticalegg
English and Cantonese, my mandarin is quite poor so I have to translate it back to English in my head.


What is default thinking language?
I know it's not that impressive but I can think in 12 different languages
British English, American English, Malaysian English, Australian English, Canadian English, New Zealand English, South African English, Indian English, Brazillian English, Chinese English, Japanese English and a bit of French.
Reply 19
can you think in bengali now?
Original post by Quick-use
3.

English, Japanese and Bengali.

I grew up as a multilingual fluent in English and Bengali as well as understanding completely but not being able to speak/write/read Hindi and Urdu.

I grew up watching Japanese animation even though I didn't understand the language and relied solely on the subtitles. In primary school I studied French; in high school I studied French and Spanish; and, at university I studied Japanese, French and Spanish. My level of English greatly decreased at university even though it was my best subject at high school and I was always considered to be well-spoken.

I spent a year studying in Tokyo during my undergraduate degree. During this time, my thinking voice shifted to Japanese and my general level of English and Bengali decreased so much so that I struggled communicating with family and friends back home.

As soon as I graduated university, I went to Japan for work where I stayed for a year. I had many foreign colleagues and spoke quite a bit of English at this time, so my level of English didn't decline like it had done during my previous stay in Japan.

These days I'm situated in the UK and as a result I mostly think in English. In Japan, my thinking voice changes to Japanese. I used to think in Bengali when I was a child until the age of around 14 or 15.

Since my year studying in Japan during my undergraduate degree, my dreams have shifted to being in Japanese which they are even now.

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