"The Neural Advantage of Speaking Two Languages"

My first language is standard midwestern American English. My second language was French, which I learned to a reasonable level of fluency (although due to lack of use that fluency is much reduced now). My third language was Esperanto, which I learned to a high level of fluency. And my fourth language was American Sign Language, which is now my daily working language. I also studied German for one year (not too successfully), and Classical Greek for two semesters in college.

So I have lots of bits and pieces of languages floating around in my head, in addition to full language systems for English, Esperanto, and ASL. These language elements all seem to stimulate chains of thought for me on various levels. Often it's a matter of related word patterns (fluency-->fluid-->flui/fluo-->influence, etc. etc.)

In general, I can't see a word without making instant connections to cognate words in other languages, and other related word forms.

Also, because I work full-time as an interpreter, I'm always engaged in analyzing meaning. "I hear what you're saying, I'm just trying to figure out what you mean." So I think that makes me somewhat "skeptical" (for lack of a better word) about the face value of language. And this process goes on even when I'm not working: driving in the car, listening to the radio, I find myself thinking "what does it mean, and how would I interpret it?"

LM