It's a telling sign about how comfortable one is with a language when you normally think in that language. What language do you normally (that is without effort) think in? Ralph
Come to think of it, I always think in English for the sole reason that I speak it fluently. Chinese comes slowly to me -- especially when I don't get exposed to it much on a daily basis.
The language that you think in, is your most native language. It's the one you're most fluent and comfortable with, such that you don't even realize or need effort to use it. Like you, I recall that years ago, I too, always thought in English. After marrying a woman who (at home) spoke Cantonese exclusively, and one day, while on vacation in HK, I suddenly realized that I was thinking in Cantonese. Another curious sidebar to this is the language thought processes of the prelingual deaf; that is, populations with a full auditory disability that were never exposed to oral or spoken language before their handicap started. Inotherwords, they have no mental understanding or concept of verbal expression. In this net article: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/031226.html Cecil Adams writes: "...The profoundly, prelingually deaf can and do acquire language; it's just gestural rather than verbal. ...It bears no relationship to English and in some ways is more similar to Chinese--a single highly inflected gesture can convey an entire word or phrase. ...Sign equips native users with the ability to manipulate symbols, grasp abstractions, and actively acquire and process knowledge--in short, to think, in the full human sense of the term. ...In what language do the profoundly deaf think? Why, in Sign (or the local equivalent), assuming they were fortunate enough to have learned it in infancy. The hearing can have only a general idea what this is like. ...Sacks writes of a visit to the island of Martha's Vineyard, where hereditary deafness was endemic for more than 250 years and a community of signers, most of whom hear normally, still flourishes. He met a woman in her 90s who would sometimes slip into a reverie, her hands moving constantly. According to her daughter, she was thinking in Sign. "Even in sleep, I was further informed, the old lady might sketch fragmentary signs on the counterpane," Sacks writes. "She was dreaming in Sign." Ralph
think chinese when i speak to a chinese person or watchin and listening to a chinese related media. I think english with english. Whenver i'm encountering a foreign language, it feels that i think half chinese and half enlish.
Well i think it depends on who i'm talking to, cause now seeing i reside in Hong Kong nearly everyone speaks cantonese, so i start thinnking in cantonese. But then when people talk to me in english i think in english. But then again it's weird cause if I memorise a phone number in chinese, and a person wants me to tell them in english, i'll first have to think it in chinese and then translate it to english.
i usually think in English, but for some things Chinese words go into my head (like counting and stuff)
english , i tried thinking in chinese for a day once but it was tiresome. But when i was in asia speaking it all day i found the language slowly creep into my thoughts at different parts of the day.
i tend to think in a mix of chinese and english...so i guess it depends what topic i'm thinking about.
when it comes to math i think in chiense faster...i calculate in chiense in my head..cause i can do it way faster than english...and in college i speak chiense to my friends sicen i only chill with chins and then the other ppl won't know wat we're saying..so im more chinese than english
depends on what i'm doing.......Usually in english when i'm with my friends but chinese if i'm watching chinese shows.
when in america w/ american friends.. i think in english.. if speaking with chinese parents or just.. living over tehre.. I think in chinese...
Well... I think in Chinese & English most of the time cause I speak to my parent in chinese but then I do speak English all the time with mates.
Mostly, I think in english when at work or with western friends. I think in cantonese when I'm with family or with chinese friends. 3 exceptions: 1. I'm not sure why, but every now and then, when I'm suprised or fustrated, I blurt out exclamations/curses in either cantonese or english, irrespective of situation. 2. When I'm with my grandparents, they talk to me in (apologies for spelling) hark ghar dialect and I respond likewise. 3. When ever I go to HK for a holiday, I have two sets of friends: The first set, I think and talk exclusively in chinese. The second group associate themselves with the ex-pats and even when we're all chinese people in one room, we still think and talk in english. I once tried to talk in chinese, but it felt strange in this crowd! C -cool
Interesting... I think I once heard that there are different languages of 'sign'. For example, if a french deaf person was to ask, " Which way to the station?" he/she would have different 'signs' to an english deaf person asking the same question. C
i think and speak a variety of languages.. i mostly think in cantonese although the output is a different language
I usually think in English 'cause it's the language I work in, but if I've been watching a lot of HK dramas and movies, I end up thinking in Cantonese.
