# The effects of speaking your native languave vs a second language



## Derange At 170 (Nov 26, 2013)

I'm completely clueless on this so this is a question. Anyone point me in the right direction please!

Does communicating with a language learned later in life effect our brains (thoughts or emotions) differently from speaking our mother tongue? Say you're fluent in one language and then you've learned and became fluent in another language in your teens. Practically, to your knowledge, you're equally comfortable communicating in both languages. Still, are there processes at work when you speak your mother tongue that aren't there when you're speaking a second language? Despite its fluency, are you still taking some mental detours compared your mother tongue? How do those detours affect your ability to connect with other people on an emotional/interpersonal level?

I am talking unconscious effects. I notice no actual difference myself speaking one of my first 3 languages, or my fourth (English).


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## Swiftstar (Dec 29, 2010)

Have you heard of the linguistic determinism theory (sometimes called Sapir-Whorf hypothesis)? It basically states that language affects the way we think.

Linguistic determinism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm sure there are papers out there that support or argue against it, but I personally think language conditions our thought processes. There are many things that overlap, or can be considered universal, but there are nuances in each language that can't really be expressed in another. 

I read an article from a journal about how being bilingual activated other regions in the brain that weren't activated in monolinguals, if that partially answers your question.

However, I'm not sure if language differences affect your ability to connect with others interpersonally, but perhaps knowing phrases that English doesn't have could provide a different way by which we can express emotions and thought. As an example, there's a list on the internet that contains foreign phrases that express things we don't have words in English for, like l'esprit d l'escalier, which means thinking of a comeback after the exchange has ended.


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## Nightchill (Oct 19, 2013)

Derange At 170 said:


> I'm completely clueless on this so this is a question. Anyone point me in the right direction please!
> 
> Does communicating with a language learned later in life effect our brains (thoughts or emotions) differently from speaking our mother tongue? Say you're fluent in one language and then you've learned and became fluent in another language in your teens. Practically, to your knowledge, you're equally comfortable communicating in both languages. Still, are there processes at work when you speak your mother tongue that aren't there when you're speaking a second language? Despite its fluency, are you still taking some mental detours compared your mother tongue? How do those detours affect your ability to connect with other people on an emotional/interpersonal level?
> 
> I am talking unconscious effects. I notice no actual difference myself speaking one of my first 3 languages, or my fourth (English).


Which 3 languages? 

LOL First they said we can't learn a new language at all if we're older than 7, now they say that even if we succeed 'it's not the same' and we're limited. Someone has to somehow put their lazy incompetent ego to rest xD

I have knowledge in few languages. However, only my English is nearly fluent. I can say that I find I would be able to express myself and bond thought to words just as well in both, were I not listening to 'mother tongue' 24/7 and English only on rare occasions (watching TV series, music, books and such). 
Of course, each language has its finer nuances and things that other languages don't. However, when you master it, you'll be able to fill in those blind spots of the 1st language, which again has its own blindspots when compared to the English. 

In fact if I stopped hearing the 1st, I'd start forgetting it. Once during summer break I cloistered myself up in my room watching movies in eng, I opened the window to let some air in and heard people speaking in a weird language. I struggled for 15 sec. to realize it's my mother tongue.

Also, I see that English has introduced many foreign words in order to be made more expressive and to the point, sometimes rightly so (e.g. schadenfreude), sometimes not (weltanschannung-worldview, raison d'etre-reason of being). Some people really wank off their ego using vocabulary xD


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## WamphyriThrall (Apr 11, 2011)

There's something called the Critical Age Hypothesis that states once someone is past a certain age, usually between birth and puberty, it becomes a lot more difficult for them to acquire a native competence. This is due to a child's brain not being fully lateralized, so they're a lot more like sponges and receptive to absorbing information. 

Then you have the fact that adults who learn outside of an immersed, first-language environment are sometimes more self-conscious, stressed, and uncomfortable, so that plays a part in how successful they are as well. If you learned your first, second, third, etc. language from an early age, and are more-or-less fluent in each in adulthood, I'd think the benefits would extend to all of them. You're using parts of your brain that wouldn't otherwise be possible for many monolinguals.

I guess what it comes down to is how much later you learned. If you're, say, forty, you'll still receive some of the benefits, but it might not come as "naturally" as your mother tongue, though fluency and native-like pronunciation are still possible. Someone who learned two or more from an early age probably wouldn't ever lose it, totally. 

A lot of people who learn Spanish in school say this, but in my case, it's probably more true: as a receptive bilingual, I'm able to understand most of what I see and read, though without practice, I make mistakes, even if my message is understood. I was taught both English and Spanish until the age of three, after which I mostly used English, but the "structure", reinforced by immersion, make sure things like pronunciation and conjugation seem second nature for me. 

Hope that makes sense.


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## damiencoold (Feb 27, 2010)

Interesting topic. I'm the big-picture kind of person so there were moments when I took a long pause for not finding the ideal adjectives for certain things. I'd say that it's as difficult for me to articulate in second fluent language as in my native tongue in those situations. However the process usually comes very natural when I enter the highly conscious level aka 'in the zone'. I sometimes find myself questioning the nature of brain linguistic process, as I speak second language for a long period of time and some native words just disappeared. It's like there's no difference between them at all even if one of which comes first.


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## xisnotx (Mar 20, 2014)

So, my mother tongue is English...(it is the tongue of my mother, after all...), but I'm functionally fluent in another language...in that, while I'm not great at it, I'm no worse at it than anyone else who uses it. (It's complicated, because the language, Swahili, is usually a second language to most people). I've always been rather good at English...better even than most who speak it exclusively, if I may say so myself...whereas with Swahili I've always been right about average (judging by tests we took as kids..)

As it stands right now, I can speak, listen, write and read Swahili fairly well, though by no means is my flow at any level close to English. I think this is due to the fact that I have been surrounded by English for the last eight years in my life. Still, when I get going, I find it does come a lot more naturally...it's more about getting into the groove of it, and if I isolate myself to just Swahili for a couple days, then I'll start having small problems with English. 

What's interesting is that I can think on the exact same topic in the two different languages and usually add to my understanding of that topic. 

Going forward, and, honestly, ever since the new year, I've been doing just this; I plan to gain extreme fluency in Swahili...that is, I want it to be at the level my English currently is at right now, better than average for a native speaker. I would like to have "college competence" in it, that is to say, I would want to be eligible to learn at a college level using Swahili. That's my goal. Right now, I'd have a "high school" competence at it...maybe. 

It's interesting...writing in Swahili is by far the easiest for me, reading by far the hardest...speaking and listening somewhere in the middle. I'd say listening more than speaking, simply because sometimes I can't find the right word, but usually a speaker can always say something in a different way so that I may understand. 

I love being bilingual. Sometimes I get to run away from my own thoughts by just thinking in the other language for a bit. Like, if I'm sad, and I've been thinking in Swahili, I'll just start thinking in English...and I won't be sad anymore. It's a brain-switch.


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## shakti (Oct 10, 2012)

This is a very interesting topic, I wrote my B.A thesis on bilingualism and the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis 

Basically I have two mother tongues (adopted before I was five, without me remembering) so both come to me with equal ease, but speaking each of them triggers slighly different emotions and behavioural patterns in me


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## FallingSlowly (Jul 1, 2013)

I'm bilingual and speak another two languages fluently, so four altogether (plus a handful of others I feel I'm not particularly good at, so they don't count ).

I think the most interesting ones are my two main languages, for the mere reason that, despite being a simultaneous bilingual (i.e. having learned them both from birth), I still feel one is stronger, and also that they affect my thinking and the way I communicate. The other two - don't know, I'm really quite aware they're foreign languages despite speaking them very well. They will never feel as natural to me.

I've lived in my mother's country until I was five, and I had more contact to her during that time as well. My father's language is English, and I've lived in English-speaking countries since starting primary school. I also lived in Italy and France for a while (my other two languages), but these were the only interruptions to speaking English. I hardly speak my mother's language anymore these days.

And still: I find my use of English more "awkward" than my use of my mother's language. I think it's down to the fact that the years between 0 and 5, when I was surrounded by her language, are so important to language acquisition. No one notices in everyday life, I have a local accent in English etc, but I am personally very aware of it. Maybe it's just all in my head, don't know 

I totally agree with @_shakti_ 's experience of my languages triggering different behaviour. I'm much more emotional when I use my mother's language, softer (despite it being a phonetically harder language), more expressive even.

English is much more detached for me. If I communicate in English, especially in written form, I always feel like having more emotional distance. It's more stilted, for lack of a better word. It just doesn't flow the same way, despite flowing very well, if that makes any sense?

Probably not


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## Bote (Jun 16, 2010)

Yes.

1) Semantics are differently structured. Consider polysemy of certain meanings behind lexemes. In some languages IF and MAYBE are expressed by one and the same word. Also YOU and OTHER in others. If we accept the materialstic model of the brain that means neurons or groups of neurons are connected in a different way. Polysemy is only an example, there are many more differences in structure, not only in semantics, but also syntax, morphology etc.

2) When you reach a level where you even think in a non-native language you are by default viewing situations and topics you discuss or think about more objectively. This is because you haven't acquired the full connotation reportoire of the respective language since that depends on your exposure to a given culture and communication with natives. Second language speakers rarely live in cultures that speak the language in question. When we learn a second language we start with denotation (cognition, definition in dictionaries). Through denotative meaning we actually manage to understand each other even though we speak radically different languages. When doing translations you sometimes have to pick whether you want to translate 'what is actually meant' or 'what is implied' because you have no equivalent phrase in your language that contains both. Translators usually choose the first option for prose, second option for poetry.

3) More languages means better long-term memory. But this does not mean that those who speak only one language have it worse off. They could have used their brain extensively in different areas (like science). By learning more languages you are effectively putting your brain to work.

4) It does not effect emotions (structurally). However, you can express certain emotions in different ways and thus communicate better with people, even in your native culture.

5) The hard claim of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis was proven to be wrong (that primitive tribes have limited thinking capacity compared to civilized people). This is because all people regardless of race, color or ethnicity share considerable structural sameness when it comes to the brain, including areas specialized for language. The soft claim is true. E.g. political jargon. If you do not analyze it seriously, you get fooled by it. In a certain way your ability to think properly and make good decisions is impaired. But it's more like having a curtain over a window and not being able to see what is outside, than being in a building without windows (metaphor for your thought processes). But if you get exposed to proper information you don't get fooled by political jargon ever again.

6) Primacy contained in some phrases or use of words shows subtle differences in how different cultures view the same actions. Consider the situation where you are observing a ring on a finger:

American: 'Ring on a finger'
Some scandinavian language (forgot which one): 'Finger in a ring'

Some cultures consider the ring more important, others the finger. 'Putting the finger in the ring' means the ring is very important in the culture of that scandinavian language.

Similar things happen with prepositions like 'on, in, over, under'. Are you sitting on a chair or in a chair? :happy:


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## Sophi (Mar 19, 2013)

I don't know if this answers your question, but in my psychology class we learned of Japanese women (fluent in English) who took a survey in their native tongue and again in English. When they took the test in Japanese they responded in a more self-effacing, community oriented manner, and when they responded in English they were more assertive and self oriented, showing that depending on the language, they responded with the different cultural influences.

Are you interested in learning different languages? Have you heard of fluentin3months.com? I want to learn several but I've been too busy with school right now. -_-;


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## Derange At 170 (Nov 26, 2013)

I.. I forgot I made this thread completely, sorry.



Sophi said:


> I don't know if this answers your question, but in my psychology class we learned of Japanese women (fluent in English) who took a survey in their native tongue and again in English. When they took the test in Japanese they responded in a more self-effacing, community oriented manner, and when they responded in English they were more assertive and self oriented, showing that depending on the language, they responded with the different cultural influences.
> 
> Are you interested in learning different languages? Have you heard of fluentin3months.com? I want to learn several but I've been too busy with school right now. -_-;


Nah, it was just something I was pondering. I was raised trilingually, ended up being quadrilingual for a while. It was sparked by a visit to the homefront where I spoke to my mom in Dutch, who spoke to me in Greek and speaking to my sister in German and how.

What you mentioned about the Japanese woman is intruiging, though. It's not completely what I was looking for, but close enough and still really interesting. The cultural influences may be.

I just checked out fluentin3months. I hadn't heard of it, but it works. I know so because I took the same approach to learn English and how I told a friend of mine to learn Dutch. Didn't think it was a big deal, haha. I'm sure many people learned new language that way.


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## dulcinea (Aug 22, 2011)

I read a psychology article, once, that stated that people who are fluent in more than one language, develop different personalities based on the languages they learn. I'll have to dig it up again, to see if they were referrring to languages that were learned as children, or as adults. The one I found, isn't quite the same article, but, it's really interesting: the idea that, first of all, no one is symetrically bilingual, and, secondly, when you think or read something in another language, it slows down your thinking, so people are less likely to fall into cognitive traps in their non native language. It also talks about the effects of biculturalism, in addition to being bilingual. Multilingualism: Johnson: Do different languages confer different personalities? | The Economist


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## BlackShugar (Apr 29, 2014)

I am bilingual(Hindi being my mother tongue and English being my second language). However, I always think in English. Thinking in Hindi is kinda awkward for me. I can't really process my thoughts quite easily in Hindi. And I always feel more comfortable while using English in my speech. Yet it is my second language. And one more thing, my real personality(the one I accept as my 'self') comes out only through English. On the other hand, I feel very obnoxious and loud while expressing myself in Hindi. None of my peers are capable of doing this. They prefer to use Hindi. Hope that adds something to the discussion.


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## HAL (May 10, 2014)

My Brazilian flatmate said you become a different person when you speak another language because you often have to think differently about the way in which you want to present your thoughts.

I know a bit of Korean. When I speak Korean I feel like it's coming from a far more Korean cultural thought process.

I'm going to study Chinese in China for a year after summer. I think I'll become a totally different person when I'm there. Actually I fear it's gonna be very difficult to resettle when I come back to the UK after, simply because my persona may have totally changed while I was away.


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