[MallyMal]

Got a question, if you are...

Multi-lingual, when you are thinking what language do you hear in your head? Is the language you hear your native language? If you have lived in a country that mostly spoke your second language did you start thinking in that second language or did you think your native language and only spoke your second language?

Hearing impaired, do you "hear" a voice at all in your head? I would imagine that if you were deaf from birth that it would be a different idea of a voice in your head because you may not have actually heard a voice.

[Randman]

Multi-lingual: If I've been speaking and listening to Spanish regularly, I can think in Spanish. Same with dreams. Some where in English, some in Spanish when I was really speaking and hearing the language on a daily basis.

Nowadays, I'm quite rusty and have to translate the words into English then back into Spanish. Same with Mandarin.

[mojo2]

Interesting questions. I'm slightly hard of hearing and hear voices in my head like anyone with normal hearing might.

I'm slightly bilingual and at one time while immersed in a Spanish speaking environment, I did think and dream in Spanish. Sometimes the ONLY word or the word of choice to describe something is not in English, but in Spanish.

[Warung]

Originally Posted by MallyMal

Multi-lingual, when you are thinking what language do you hear in your head?

Well, that depends on which voice is currently telling me what to do...there is this one that keeps saying "kill..kill them all...!"

Actually it varies though. Depending on the context...

Originally Posted by MallyMal

Is the language you hear your native language? If you have lived in a country that mostly spoke your second language did you start thinking in that second language...?

Yes.

[euchomai]

I asked my totally deaf father this same question, he went deaf at a young age. When people speak, his brain inserts voices. He was almost completely deaf when I was a four, but was able to wear hearing-aids. After his hearing went to 100% loss (while I was four), his brain stuck my childhood voice into the voice I currently have. He goes to restaurants and also "hears" the room noise. Sometimes he speaks too loud in quiet restaurants because of that noise. Our brains are pretty cool.

[Ji Eun]

native english speaker... after 5 years in japan though i often find myself thinking / dreaming / talking to myself in japanese.... my fiance is japanese, doesn't speak much english. this has certainly had an effect on me.

before japan though, spent 4 years in laos, same thing happened with that language (lao), minus the fiance. now based in thailand... we'll see how this goes.

[Ji Eun]

Originally Posted by euchomai

I asked my totally deaf father this same question, he went deaf at a young age. When people speak, his brain inserts voices. He was almost completely deaf when I was a four, but was able to wear hearing-aids. After his hearing went to 100% loss (while I was four), his brain stuck my childhood voice into the voice I currently have. He goes to restaurants and also "hears" the room noise. Sometimes he speaks too loud in quiet restaurants because of that noise. Our brains are pretty cool.

that's pretty remarkable. cool indeed.

[MallyMal]

These responses are pretty cool. I'm starting to wonder if I moved to the UK would I start thinking with a British accent.

[MallyMal]

Originally Posted by euchomai

I asked my totally deaf father this same question, he went deaf at a young age. When people speak, his brain inserts voices. He was almost completely deaf when I was a four, but was able to wear hearing-aids. After his hearing went to 100% loss (while I was four), his brain stuck my childhood voice into the voice I currently have. He goes to restaurants and also "hears" the room noise. Sometimes he speaks too loud in quiet restaurants because of that noise. Our brains are pretty cool.

Now, that is too cool.

[SVass]

Multi-lingual Once I overheard a couple of people speaking in German (at a college picnic in Peoria) and only several minutes later did I realize that they were speaking in the wrong language for that environment. Even worse, I speak/know intimately science and mathematics. I hear people totally mis-state mathematics and it hurts. sam

[Adam Betts]

Originally Posted by MallyMal

Multi-lingual, when you are thinking what language do you hear in your head? Is the language you hear your native language? If you have lived in a country that mostly spoke your second language did you start thinking in that second language or did you think your native language and only spoke your second language?

Hearing impaired, do you "hear" a voice at all in your head? I would imagine that if you were deaf from birth that it would be a different idea of a voice in your head because you may not have actually heard a voice.

My main language is american sign language and it dominated everything from writing to dreaming. It's difficult to think back to proper english because asl removed lot of stuffs in english such as 'is' 'a' 'the', past/future tenses, etc. Also my parents and brother are deaf so it's even more difficult.

I was born little hard of hearing and I did hear most high pitch sounds but now Im mostly deaf. I get ear rings from time to time though. I don't "hear" a voice in my head when someone else is talking or making noises. I only hear it when I want to imagine (think old batman on TV: BOOM! etc)

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by MallyMal

Got a question, if you are...

Multi-lingual, when you are thinking what language do you hear in your head? Is the language you hear your native language? If you have lived in a country that mostly spoke your second language did you start thinking in that second language or did you think your native language and only spoke your second language?

I use English as my main language at school and basically all papers and books I read are published in English. When I discuss mathematical physics, I prefer to do it in English most of the time. I still think in English half of the time.

In the States, I had funny dreams when German people (family and friends) would speak in German, but the Americans would answer in English.

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by SVass

I hear people totally mis-state mathematics and it hurts. sam

What exactly do you mean?

[nonhuman]

I'm a native English speaker, but I also speak (to varying degrees) Russian, French, Japanese, and Chinese. If I've been around people speaking any of those languages, or even if I just see something that reminds me of those places or language I'll often find myself slipping into thinking in them, even if it's only a few words or phrases. Also, certain phrases and thoughts almost always come out in other languages as well. For example if I'm thinking about something and realize that I don't know something, I very rarely think 'I don't know'. Usually it comes out as 'Я не знаю' or even '我不知道'. Strangely enough, when I hear people speaking in other languages, whether it's one I understand or not, I often find myself falling into Russian. I guess it makes some sense as, of the four non-English languages I have any competence with, I'm by far the most comfortable with Russian.

[analogika]

I grew up bilingual English/German, and dreams work in both languages. I think in either language.

I've also had it happen that, when I was really tired and half-asleep, I was talked to in English and replied in German. Apparently, I was quite confounded when I didn't get an answer.

Sometimes, in dreams, people I know will actually speak in the "wrong" language...this goes in both directions, interestingly.


On a side note, I tend to have difficulty with listening to people over strong background noise (I mean, more difficulty than others in the same room listening as well). I'd eventually come up with a theory as to why, which I've since found verified in a psycho-acoustic text: When you hear language, it's a single stream of audio, which is then parsed by your speech center and separated into meaningful phrases/words using certain filters.

When you grow up bilingually, you're actually running everything you hear through two separate filters, which takes a little more time.

-ch.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by nonhuman

Strangely enough, when I hear people speaking in other languages, whether it's one I understand or not, I often find myself falling into Russian. I guess it makes some sense as, of the four non-English languages I have any competence with, I'm by far the most comfortable with Russian.

I get that too, except that it's Japanese, which is the non-native (read: non-English/non-German) language I'm the least incapable of.

[Chuckit]

I don't think my thoughts are actually in a language unless I'm specifically trying to think of words. Otherwise, they come a lot faster than I can normally process language.

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by analogika

I get that too, except that it's Japanese, which is the non-native (read: non-English/non-German) language I'm the least incapable of.

I have a similar habit: I somehow manage to connect words with memories very easily. To the Japanese aishiteru, I connect being with my (Mexican ) girlfriend, if I hear the word nifty, I have to think of a person I met in the States. Hence I tend to use words which come `most natural' to me – which might be English, German, Japanese or even a few tidbits in Spanish or Italian.

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by Chuckit

I don't think my thoughts are actually in a language unless I'm specifically trying to think of words. Otherwise, they come a lot faster than I can normally process language.

At least for me I can clearly say, I can tell the difference between thoughts `in English', `German' or `Japanese'.

[SVass]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

What exactly do you mean?

When I read the results of a survey, hear a politician speak, read/hear any popular statistical
subject, I cringe at the mis-statements. One of my paying tasks was to read contractual performance specifications and translate them into engineeringese. (Of course, I have heard nonsense from engineers also.) Leaving out the qualifiers in a sentence is normal; but, claims that correlation is the same as causation or use of the prosecutor's fallacy or the ecological fallacy in logical argument are painful. Put another way, misuse of the English language is far more difficult to untangle than a foreign language. (The Penrose book "The Road to Reality" is far easier to fathom than the Government report on Social Security projections.) sam

[analogika]

Of course, equating correlation with causation *can* be a genuine error. It's also used very frequently as a tactic in argumentation (visit the poli lounge for that, or watch a couple of populist politicians' speeches, or read a Murdoch paper).

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by SVass

When I read the results of a survey, hear a politician speak, read/hear any popular statistical
subject, I cringe at the mis-statements. One of my paying tasks was to read contractual performance specifications and translate them into engineeringese. (Of course, I have heard nonsense from engineers also.) Leaving out the qualifiers in a sentence is normal; but, claims that correlation is the same as causation or use of the prosecutor's fallacy or the ecological fallacy in logical argument are painful. Put another way, misuse of the English language is far more difficult to untangle than a foreign language. (The Penrose book "The Road to Reality" is far easier to fathom than the Government report on Social Security projections.) sam

Ok, now I see where you're coming from. Statistics (in your sense) is not my area of expertise, but I do understand what you're getting at.

Over the years, some words like `compact', `adjoint', `kernel' etc. seem to have lost their meaning outside of mathematics for me. Sometimes, I have to think about the definition and feeling of a word outside of the context of mathematics or physics. Does the same happen to you sometimes?

(PS Is the book written by Oliver or Roger? I'll have the pleasure hearing talks by them next year at a conference my professor is organizing )

[MallyMal]

I've also noticed that the voice in my head changes with my audible voice. Like my voice was higher when I was 8. Therefore, when I was 8, the voice in my head was higher. So, if my logic is correct, the voice in my head will change again when I get into my senior citizen years.

[paul w]

Originally Posted by analogika

Sometimes, in dreams, people I know will actually speak in the "wrong" language...this goes in both directions, interestingly.

-ch.

This has happened to me too, with my parents speaking to me in French or something, and I'm harldly natively bilingual.

The language I think in tends to have a context. English is the defalut setting, but If I'm spending lots of time, either at work or socially with people speaking either French or Italian, I'll find myself thinking a bit in those languages (rather than just retranslate everything in my head).

The sign that you've really become comfortable in a language is when you stop all the translating in your head, and just let it flow.

[SVass]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

Over the years, some words like `compact', `adjoint', `kernel' etc. seem to have lost their meaning outside of mathematics for me. Sometimes, I have to think about the definition and feeling of a word outside of the context of mathematics or physics. Does the same happen to you sometimes?

I just refuse to accept the popular misuse of words so my wife calls me an arrogant b**. (She is used to speaking to engineers.) By the way, I do not understand the language of statistics. I have dabbled in probability theory instead to solve engineering problems. The two fallacies that I referenced were exhibited with the first being in OJs criminal case by the prosecution and the second in a local gubernatorial election court case with the mathematics actually discussed both in testimony on live tv and in the final written decision. The losing party continues to deny reality and claim that they are right.

Originally Posted by OreoCookie

(PS Is the book written by Oliver or Roger? I'll have the pleasure hearing talks by them next year at a conference my professor is organizing )

It was written by Roger in 2004 with the subtitle "A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe" and appears to be an excellent reference.
sam

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by SVass

It was written by Roger in 2004 with the subtitle "A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe" and appears to be an excellent reference.
sam

I'll take a look at it, maybe my professor has it. Although I doubt the Guide is complete

[Oisín]

I'm not natively bi- or multilingual, but I do find myself thinking (and occasionally dreaming) in other languages than my native language, Danish.

If I'm speaking or writing in English, I don't think in Danish at all; in fact, because I write so much more in English now than I do in Danish, I often find myself at a loss for words when writing in Danish (but not when speaking, because, since I'm still living in Denmark, I speak about a hundred times more Danish than English).

If I'm speaking French, Spanish, Swedish, or Chinese, I mostly think in that language—or should I say, I structure my thoughts according to the grammatical and syntactical build-up of whichever language it is I am speaking—but still have to resort to Danish sometimes, if I have to look for a word. Often, though, I have some difficulty falling back to Danish in those situations; if I'm speaking in Spanish and suddenly find myself at a loss for some word, my brain always seems very insistant that it should be trying to find that particular word in Chinese, rather than Danish, which tends to create awkward little pauses in conversations...

(Interestingly enough, since I've been speaking so much more Swedish than Norwegian of late, due to my job, I have started thinking in Swedish when I try to speak Norwegian; I used to think in Danish when I tried to speak in Norwegian.)

When I was living in China, it was not uncommon for me to either start speaking English to my Danish friends, Danish to my German or Chinese friends, or Chinese to pretty much any of my 'Western' friends. It worked well enough as long as I spoke English to my Danish friends, but my German friends particularly tended to get a slightly baffled and nonplussed look on their faces when I started speaking to them in Danish all of a sudden.



As for dreams, I don't dream in any language, only 'indirectly'. I am often aware that someone in a dream is speaking a particular language, but the information about what that person is saying in the dream doesn't get 'parsed' through that language, it's just sort of additional, semi-unnecessary information. I have had dreams where my parents spoke to me in Ancient Hittite, a language about which I have absolutely no knowledge whatsoever, but I understood them perfectly (and I think I even replied in Hittite).

[The Godfather]

I am a native Spanish speaker, but after 7 years in this English speaking country, I think sometimes in Spanish (mostly when I am by myself) and sometimes in English (mostly during an English language interaction).