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As a trilingual or bilingual, what role does language play in the creation of your identity? Which language do you think in?
I've grown up speaking 3 very diverse languages, I feel that they've created three distinct worlds in me. I find myself moving in and out of not only languages but cultures as well.
What role do languages play in your life? Do you find yourself thinking in more than one language?
Topics:
Mind Conscious Identity identity language
Michael M 30+
Thanks for a great question and a great conversation. I loved reading people's ideas on this.
Mary M. 50+
This is especially so when lecturing, or correcting my children. Spanish pops out. I'll start lecturing in English first, but I'll finish in Spanish for emphasis.
I find that I make myself understood better in English when writing. But, in speaking, I do well in both languages.
Great question Ayesha.
Joy Johnson
Erin Tuncan
Manue M 10+
I am "half this, half That, with Those origins", married to a "half this, half that" wonderful man. All members of our small family were born in a different country. I have been an expat for more than ten years, changing countries at least every two years.I think and dream mainly in Two languages at the moment, plus in pictures.
I love words you cannot really translate. "Mabrouk" is just so Lebanese. A Thai who wants to be polite and affirmative will say "na ka" no matter if he speaks Thai or in English. How about invented words like " bonjourain"! when you are polite in Lebanon you multiply the word by two by adding "ayn" at the end, like in "saartayn" (cheers twice!), some Lebanon in regions where French used to be widely spoken, people will say "bonjour twice" so they say " bonjouray".
At home in a conversation with my husband, we tend to use words from several different languages. For example, We use the Egyptian "Malesh" to insist that that is ok, it does not matter. We will say the German "ja" to give an extra connotation to "yes". We sometimes use whole expressions in another language if it expresses our feelings or thoughts better.
We use different body languages depending on what the situation is. I sometimes lift my eye browns to say "no" instead of shaking my head even when I speak English or French.
Also, I am very careful not to make someone loose his face in asia. And now, I am naturally adopting this same attitude when I speak with non Asians.
I have always taken other people s gestures and accents while talking to them. My husband knows who I have seen during the day from my accent and gestures at the end of the day!
I try to take the best from all cultures I come across with. You could think I am loosing my identity, actually, I am finding myself.
Mary M. 50+
This is exactly what happens to me. My sister, and later my husband accused me of making fun of the people I'm talking to, but that is just not true.
My entire life, I have switched the way I talk depending on whom I'm speaking with. When speaking to Argentenians I switch to voz and che and dale....when speaking to Asians who speak poor English, I will imitate their way of speech....I mean, I stop using proper English, and totally mimic them.....something happens, and I become one with the person I am talking with. It's as if I don't speak like them, they will not understand me.....is it like that with you?
I am good at picking up foreign languages. Including sign language. Wow, you are only the second person that I have known to be like me in this respect.
Interesting.
Manue M 10+
I spent 8 months in south USA. I came back with a very strong us accent when speaking French, the language I was raised in!! My sisters made fun of me! My grandparents were shocked by my american accent, no offense to Americans, but I used to have a very British accent!
Like you said, I tend to make one with people. It does not mean I agree with they ideas at all thus. But it probably does help me understand them. I am also someone who can have two opposite ideas at the same time in my head and find valid arguments for both of them. Would this have a link with the ability we both share? What do you think? I find this discussion very interesting and would like to know more about your experience!
Manue M 10+
Mary M. 50+
This is the KEY.....I hear and reproduce sounds almost to perfection the first time I hear them. It is like my ear is fine tuned. I still remember a Greek phrase taught to me by a friend over 20 years ago.
Oh, I am so envious of the fact you are learning Chinese, how exciting neh? (Japanese little word I throw behind some sentences, after being exposed to Japanese language a while back).
Time does not allow me to learn new languages fully at the present. But I am very much interested in Indian languages.....Hindi or Urdu......or even the Chinese language.
I do believe that the next best thing to speaking someone's language, is trying to empathize with them, and making them feel understood. Something kicks in, I cannot explain it, when I speak to foreigners. I just cannot help myself.....and because of it I have had the most wonderful experiences.....I don't for one minute regret this gift I have. I use it all the time.
It comes very handy when helping the elderly, and young children as well.
I will think upon some experiences and come back to share. Thanks for your reply.
Rudi Lambert
Sometimes language as a whole is much easier if you look at all of them at once. I can read most of what I see around me on when I travel in Europe because most words will have a similar word in one of the languages that I know. I also find that I've learned to mix them up when I think,.. or even when I talk, depending on the language skill of the people I'm talking to. Some words or expressions just work better in certain langauges, so, at least in my head, I mix them constantly, even langauges that I don't really speak very wel.
When I take notes its worse. Anything that holds an idea will do, from cartoons to hierglyphs that I picked up studing history or some foreign word for a very complicated idea that just doesn't exist in any other language. Sometimes math, which is really just a language, as well.
It seems to me that if young children where taught 'language' at school, rather than one or two particular languages, they'd have a much easier time picking up functional knowledge of the ones they need when they need them later in life.
Basically, I play with words and language in my head all the time.
blanca costa
Bilingual since I was a kid, and having learned 3 more languages and studying a fourth right now, languages give you the freedom of being a global citizen, willing to travel and knowing new cultures. And if you get to really travel around the world, if you really get to live the language, you feel self confident, become open minded.
Languages create strong identities and approach people from all around the world.
In www.universoprofesional.com we try to give this message to young professionals, to inform them about the importance of being not only bilingual but also trilingual or more.
Suzanne Savoie
Rebecca Robideau
Born to Dutch and German parents, raised in Senegal West Africa, and now living in the United States.
So when I speak Wolof, the tribal language I learnt while in Senegal, my mood automatically shifts to that of a typical African speaking Wolof. My hands start flying, my emotions start soaring and I feel happier. When I speak English, my mood becomes more subtle and not as emotional. I feel different. When I speak to my relatives in Holland or my Mother in Dutch, I start thinking more about my European ways of life. Languages create different moods and worlds that we as multi lingual people can travel in and out of. Many of us never even experience learning two languages. I consider myself very fortunate as to learning 5 languages and understanding the culture behind each one. I can travel to 5 different worlds all in one day~ How fortunate!
John Frum 30+
Quite often, when I'm thinking about things, it is virtually spoken out inside my head. And again, quite often, there is an imaginary audience for this, and this audience is usually based on people I had related conversations with in real life. Let's say I'm a banker who likes to watch football with friends. (I'm neither.) When thinking of banking issues, I would "converse" with my colleagues, in the language that I use at work. And when I'm thinking of the game, I would converse with my drinking buddies with whom I watch the game, and I would "converse" in the language I normally use with them.
There were times when I caught myself in idle thought when driving or riding a bus, about things I have saw then and there. And I suddenly stopped and asked myself what language that was. I tried to "speak out" the thought in each of the languages I spoke fluently, and I could make none of them fit the thought.
So, for myself, there are times when I think, that I think in no language at all. (When I was thinking this note out, I thought in English.)
Zsófia Forró
And I agree that when I speak or think in a language, the people I spoke to most in my life in that language are present in my mind as an imaginary audience. I believe I speak the languages in relationship to them, because I learned it and practised it by speaking to them.
It does feel a bit like I'm a different person in every language I speak, but I notice that most when I switch languages with the same person - if I'd been speaking to them in English and we switch to French or vice versa. When this happens it clearly feels like we step into a different context a bit, as if we suddenly look at the world from a different perspective - as if suddenly France is the center of the globe. And the same goes with any other language.
John Frum 30+
A part of my brain is probably defective ;-).
Jenny Elizabeth Keul
I have noticed that INTERNATIONAL English is a unique language in and of itself, because in becoming international it has been stripped of a lot of the regional nuances that give a language its unique flair and generational/geographical/cultural context. Since I've been living abroad I speak primarily Italian and "international" English (with non-native English speakers), and I have to admit that when I do have the rare opportunity to speak with friends from my childhood in the U.S., I feel transported back in time and happily dust off some of the old slang that I haven't used in ages.
If I had to try to classify it, I feel like I am closest to my "real" self when I am speaking either regional conversational English or Italian, because in both cases I am enriching my word choice with pieces of myself and the cultures that have helped forge me. When I speak in "international" English I feel more limited and formal, because it means I am speaking with someone who may or may not be able to understand some of the more place-specific slang or cultural references.
Kim Laes
Personally, language is an important part of my identity, because of what I just explained. In my own language I can express myself in a way I can not when speaking another language. This is even so where the difference is concerned between the Flemish and the Dutch (Netherlands). When I speak to a Dutchman I can hear the cultural differences between us in every word we utter, even though we are supposed to speak the same language. We use the words differently, both in meaning as in sound.
That doesn't mean I dislike other languages. In fact, I think that the more languages you speak the 'richer' you become in mind and understanding. I speak Dutch, French, English and I understand German. These languages have given me access to knowledge I would not have had access to if I did not understand these languages. Multilinguism is something desirable. In most cases it leads to a greater understanding of eachother (except in Belgium, doesn't help at all).
Jorge Contreras
everytime I try to express some deep emotions i dont have to think wich one I will use ..each language has words and their definitions are so accurate on delivering the message.
I like to add italian and arab to languages I´d like to be able to speak.
Kathy Castle
Arnab Dutta
Ayesha Sayed 500+
Kathy Castle
I am working toward my doctorate in Organizational Communication. Essentially, I study the processes by which we create meaning within and around organizations and society. I am early in the process-working on it part time as I teach full time-so still sorting through narrowing down my specific research interests, but the central premise is the ways in which organizational and public discourses intersect to inhibit dialogue. Dialogue is a unique form of communication in which each communicator comes to the interaction fully cognizent of his or her positionality---this entails understanding the power inherent within their social positioning and how that impacts their ability to influence the creation of meaning. These communicators then go the extra step of attempting to understand the other person's positionality in the interaction as well. The goal is to create new meaning rather than impose a pre-existing meaning held by either communicator. In my view, dialogue understood in this way is necessary for us to come together to address issues as a society and as a global community.
One essential element of this process is recognizing the ways in which our identity construction impacts our positionality--and how our understanding of ourselves is both limited by and enabled by the social structures we create through our communication.
If you're interested in this area of study, you can certainly get a better feel for the way this perspective plays out in considering everyday experience by visiting my blog--it's a personal commentary from my standpoint as a developing academic--a place where I sort through various academic concepts as they play out in my everyday experience. My posts range from purely academic to how these concepts inform my role as a mother raising three young children. It might give a more clear understanding of the way I view and study communicative processes. Feel free to check it out! http://www.kathy-momphd.blogspot.com
Iris Borgers
Bruno Carre
In little Belgium, there are 3 national languages: Flemish (Dutch), French and German. I speak the first 2 and my mother tongue is French, even though my father was Flemish. I then studied English and Russian translation, lived a year in the US, studied in the Netherlands and in Russia, then met and married an Italian girl.
So, as you can imagine, your question triggers many thoughts, but for me the most important thing would be this:
It begets curiosity, openness, respect for "different" people.
It is a never-ending journey of pleasure and delight, you never fully master a language, but the more you learn, the more you enjoy it.
To communicate comes from Latin (communicatio), which means: to s-h-a-r-e .
Being happy for me is not having 6 zeros on my bank account, it is about sharing: passions, love, ideas (hello, TED), friendship.
I'm fortunate enough to live in Belgium, a place where, historically, socially, economically, there is no other choice than being open to what surrounds us, which starts with knowing several languages (even though Belgian politicians beg to differ).
So, every language you know gives you an opportunity to have, or rather, to e-n-j-o-y several cultural identities, which means you can easily share many more meaningful things in life with people.
In a nutshell: a true wonder of human kind.
:)
tishe Hires 10+
Nuno Magalhães
Ever heard of the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis? I wouldn't mind learning Lojban next if i had the time (or Russian, or Polish, or Japanese, or...).
Vignesh T
I feel connected wherever I go and it doesn't take me a long while before I start thinking in the language of the place.
Thinking in different languages is an act that transpires inner beauty and lets your mind capture the underlying essence of all differing opinions and cultures, while at the same time letting you explore the iridescence of the mind space! It simply makes you a better person! I feel that thinking in different languages has imparted a certain 'flexibility' to my mind.
Paulo Resende
Marco Angulo
Joseph Siotene
Adam Renner
Ovidiu Ficlenescu
Thomas Martinez
Ovidiu Ficlenescu
tw bengs
Laszlo Kereszturi 500+