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What is it like to think in another language?

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I decided that I should learn Esperanto way back in 1991 but it wasn't until 2003 that I got serious about memorizing enough vocabulary to make conversation possible. Because it had been so long since my interest was sparked, it was difficult to remember why I liked the idea in the first place. After thinking back, it turns out that it was a combination of curiosity and laziness.

I had Spanish in school, but even after three years of classes I was still less proficient in Spanish than the average 2-year-old native speaker. Yes, that's partly my own fault but what a waste of time!

Computer languages came easier: BASIC, fortran, Pascal, Lisp and C. Each one required a slightly different way of thinking. It got me to wondering, "What would it be like to change the language that I think with?"

So that's why I learned Esperanto. I wanted to know what it would be like to think in another language but I had been discouraged by the difficulty of an ad-hoc "natural language". When I found out how easy Esperanto was, I decided to learn it. Unfortunately, I was still lazy so I put off learning vocabulary for about ten years... but that's another story.

Thinking in another language...

Pardonu min se mi skribas en Esperanto, sed mia angla scipovo ne estas sufiĉe bona. Mi lernis la francan lingvon en Francio. Tie mi estis mergita en la francaj lingvaĵoj. Sed nur en la lastaj monatoj antaŭ foriro for de tiu lando mi komencis sonĝi en la franca lingvo. Hodiaŭ mi povas pensi (fari internan dialogon) en la franca sed tio en Toronto ne ofte okazas. Ĉiuokaze post 15 jaroj da studo de la angla lingvo, mi ankoraŭ hodiaŭ ne kapablas pensi en tiu lingvo. Tio eble estas pro tio ke oni tre frue komencis kritiki mian anglan scipovon kaj ĵetante miajn erarojn al mia vizaĝo malkuraĝigis min pri komforteco en tiu lingvo. Eĉ hodiaŭ mi tre timante uzas la anglan lingvon. Pri la franca lingvo oni ofte toleris miajn erarojn kaj permesis eĉ erare esprimi min sed ne ĵetis miajn erarojn al mia vizaĝo. En Parizo mi multe audis laudojn pri tio ke mi bone parolas la francan, kvankam mi bone sciis ke mi faras multegajn erarojn kaj fuŝe prononcas la vortojn. Pri la angla oni ĉiam demandas min "kion vi diris?" kaj multaj anglaparolantoj opinias ke ilia lingvo estas tiom internacia, facila kaj tuj regebla ke ne regi ĝin estas kvazaŭ peko.

  • By Becxjo at 2007-01-17 16:06
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Thinking...

I learned Spanish to fluency (studying it in high school, majoring in it in college, and studying in Spain for a semester), but never got to the point where I could *consistently* think in it. I would have flashes of it where I could sense that my internal dialog had shifted to Spanish -- especially when talking to someone -- but then would settle back into English once I wasn't talking or working at it. I very occasionally had dreams in Spanish.

I learned Esperanto afterwards and had largely the same experience until two years ago. I went to Europe and was in an Esperanto environment for a week or so. I discovered after the first couple of days, that I was thinking almost entirely in Esperanto. I was looking out the window of the car as we were driving through the Hungarian countryside when I realized I had been thinking in Esperanto effortlessly for hours. Over the course of that week, I found myself thinking continuously in Esperanto except when I would explicitly do something in English, like write email or blog posts for my family. It was a really cool experience.

--
Steven BREWER

  • By limako at 2007-01-17 14:25
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Thinking in Another Language

I agree with you, Steve. Thinking in another language requires at least a) an adequate language base to support conceptual processes, and b) an environment where the language is in active use. That environment doesn't necessarily have to be physical; a virtual environment can function much the same way, I think. So can a mentally constructed internal environment.

One of the great advantages of courses like NASK is the opportunity to actually use the language, rather than just studying and thinking about it. Hearing the language, as well as producing it, is also an important part of the equation.

I live a pretty mixed-language existence. I work professionally as an American Sign Language interpreter, live in an English-speaking world, and have fluency in Esperanto . . . often during the day I find myself thinking either in ASL (which is highly visual thought) or in Esperanto. And sometimes I have to catch myself and be sure I'm using the right language with the right people.

I also work with students who are learning to be ASL interpreters, and the feedback I consistently give them is "You have to have an immense vocabulary" and "You have to be able to process language with speed." Neither of those is an easy task, and both are really life-long processes. I.e., we're somewhere on a continuum of language learning between novice and expert, and we've never really "arrived" at an end point. (The same is true of our native language, we just don't tend to recognize that. How many times during the week do you encounter and learn a new word, or figure out a better, more elegant way to say something? Pretty often for most of us.)

Plej amike,

Lee Miller

  • By Lee Miller at 2007-01-17 14:52
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