Is it possible to think in another Language?: Philosophy Forums

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Is it possible to think in another Language?

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Is it possible to think in another Language?

mogadishu
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Posted 07/15/04 - 01:15 PM:	#1
I am only fluent in english, and when I think to myself I think in english. But, say I was to go live in France or Spain for 10 years. I become fluent in their respected languages. Can I now think in French or Spanish? Or is one only able to think in their first language?
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Rhodus
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Posted 07/15/04 - 01:33 PM:	#2
It is possible to do so. In fact, I'm doing it right now, composing this post. I'm not going through the route of translating it to my first language (Dutch). I can tell the difference; if I'm thinking in Dutch I'll have to do a mental translation of my Dutch thought to English, while at present I'm putting my thoughts directly into English. Truthfully, the thought isn't in a specific language. I would rather say you start off with a proto-thought, which quickly gets shape in a specific language. Sometimes it may resist getting shape into a coherent sentence because the words don't quite fit or the combination of elements needs a subtle connection which you can't quite find the form for, but the thought still is there, waiting to be expressed properly.

Impenitent
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Posted 07/15/04 - 01:51 PM:	#3
check out Firefox by Craig Thomas... Eastwood did a movie about it in 1982... the book was excellent... http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0061000515/002-5203077-8744049?v=glance

mogadishu
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Posted 07/15/04 - 02:04 PM:	#4
Impenitent wrote: check out Firefox by Craig Thomas... Eastwood did a movie about it in 1982... the book was excellent... http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0061000515/002-5203077-8744049?v=glance ?
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Casiopeia
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Posted 07/15/04 - 02:05 PM:	#5
mogadishu wrote: I am only fluent in english, and when I think to myself I think in english. But, say I was to go live in France or Spain for 10 years. I become fluent in their respected languages. Can I now think in French or Spanish? Or is one only able to think in their first language? bi-lingual abilities according to my anthropology class actually explain that when we are raised with only one language for years and years and then say for ten years are in another country speaking another language...there is a process that takes place very quickly whereby the brain recieves it in the foreign language...turns around and does and english translation(for example) then translate answers back into the foreign language with in fractions of seconds. However, truely bi-lingual people who were raised speaking more than one language do not have this process because their brains developed as a child to understand simultaniously more than one language. Okay did that make sense ?
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mogadishu
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Posted 07/15/04 - 02:24 PM:	#6
Casiopeia wrote: bi-lingual abilities according to my anthropology class actually explain that when we are raised with only one language for years and years and then say for ten years are in another country speaking another language...there is a process that takes place very quickly whereby the brain recieves it in the foreign language...turns around and does and english translation(for example) then translate answers back into the foreign language with in fractions of seconds. However, truely bi-lingual people who were raised speaking more than one language do not have this process because their brains developed as a child to understand simultaniously more than one language. Okay did that make sense ? Yea that makes sense - the differences between the two types of bilinguals. I have a friend who grew up speaking both English and Hebrew, and she says she thinks in both, kind of like an internal monlogue in Spanglish (only hebrew instead of spanish)
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Rhodus
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Posted 07/15/04 - 02:25 PM:	#7
I have some doubts with that explanation. It happens quite often that I can formulate my thought in English but cannot translate it quickly into Dutch. If I would think only in Dutch, and translate it afterwards (even if very quickly), surely that would never be a problem? I haven't been raised speaking English; I learned it at school starting at the age of 12, like most Dutch people.

Casiopeia
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Posted 07/15/04 - 02:35 PM:	#8
Rhodus wrote: I have some doubts with that explanation. It happens quite often that I can formulate my thought in English but cannot translate it quickly into Dutch. If I would think only in Dutch, and translate it afterwards (even if very quickly), surely that would never be a problem? I haven't been raised speaking English; I learned it at school starting at the age of 12, like most Dutch people. The possiblity that because you were still developing explains why that is possible. The adult mind is not as flexible or adaptable but it can be taught just not the same way as a developing child. Which do you find easier to use English or Dutch? Do you have a conscious preference to either language? I am interested in knowing if you had friends you spoke to in either language the majority of the time growing up. My fiance is from South Africa. He speaks Afrikaans and English. He started learning both from birth. He has no trouble speaking both however for emotional reasons he prefers English.
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flatliner
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Posted 07/15/04 - 02:47 PM:	#9
Of course it is possible to think in other langauges. Once you are fluent in a new language, you don't have say a sentence to yourself in your native langauge and then translate it, you just say it in the other language -- that is what it means to be fluent. Once you're fluent in multiple langauges, you will dream in different langauges too. Pretty cool, eh?
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Rhodus
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Posted 07/15/04 - 03:08 PM:	#10
Casiopeia: Oh, I do prefer Dutch, that is not the issue. However, I do not have the experience that I (even subconsciously) really translate through Dutch. At times I have a concept in my head for which I know a good English word, but not a Dutch word (and sometimes such an exact word doesn't even exist). At other times I notice that I construct a sentence in a way that is valid in English grammar but not in Dutch. I find those experiences difficult to match with the theory you refer to. Of course my mind may subconsiously work in a different way, but still a further explanation would then be necessary for those phenomena.

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