1. Ferb

    Ferb New Member

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    Bilinguals: Do you find one language more dominant than the other?

    Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by Ferb, Aug 2, 2009.

    If so, what language do you think in? Your native language or the one you learned as a second language?
     
  2. Acglaphotis

    Acglaphotis New Member

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    I tend to think in English, most of the time. The times I do catch myself thinking in Spanish is when I'm in a setting where I'm required to talk to a lot of people at the same time or rotate very quickly between them.
     
  3. Neha

    Neha Beyond Infinity. Contributor

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    It depends on the situation actually.....and the person I'm thinking about/talking too......with my parents it's mostly Hindi...but with my friends it's Hinglish/Hingrazi(Hindi version of Hinglish)....and with strangers English...probably because I'm comfortable with both both languages. Other languages creep in into conversations, but aren't so dominant.
     
  4. Lydia

    Lydia Contributor Contributor

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    Hmm, pretty sure I think in English all the time... atleast that's the language i dream in... :p
     
  5. Gallowglass

    Gallowglass Contributor Contributor

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    The Internet is the only place I speak English. And most of the sites I post on are Gaidhlig sites, so even then Gaidhlig is definately dominant, and Gaeilge and Scoats are both ahead of English as far as how much I use them is concerned.

    I always think in Gaidhlig, and always talk in Gaidhlig even to people I don't know. If they come here, they learn the language; if not they'll end up hundreds of miles from where they wanted to go offering to decorate people's houses for free, thinking it means 'hello' ;)
     
  6. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    I think in English.

    My native Spanish has fallen into the hands of a Royal Academy, so I've left off thinking in it until such time as a more democratic situation is established. Feel free to ask my why, I promise to wax rhapsodic. ;)

    While I was learning Russian, the course work at the school I attended was so intensive that I began dream almost exclusively in Russian and it became more than a little difficult to write a cheque with Latin script.
     
  7. Lijde

    Lijde New Member

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    I mostly think in English, but occasionally I find myself slipping into Chinese or Greek.

    Or some random babbling language that resembles Japanese. :p
     
  8. Cheeno

    Cheeno Member

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    English, unfortunately, but Gaeilge when I'm with my Irish speaking friends and associates, who I meet twice a week for a bit of ceol agus craic (music and fun).
     
  9. Gigi_GNR

    Gigi_GNR Guys, come on. WAFFLE-O. Contributor

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    After my Spanish classes, all my thoughts tend to be in Spanish, and I accidentally speak it to my teachers sometimes. It's hilarious to watch their faces when I answer a question in Spanish, and then go, "Oh...wait...."
     
  10. Sabreur

    Sabreur Contributor Contributor

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    I wish I had a language to be fluent in other than English.

    Gaelic specifically. I'm not even particularly connected to Ireland or Scotland; I mean sure, I have distant ancestors from both those places but my last name is decidedly Anglo-Norman and my maternal grandfather is from Italy. So I have little cultural basis to stand on here.

    I wish there was a way to learn it but last time I checked, Gaelic-teaching colleges are few and far between. At least in my neck of the woods.
     
  11. hiddennovelist

    hiddennovelist Contributor Contributor

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    I only fluently speak English, but every once in a while, I dream in Spanish. It's a little weird, considering how poorly I speak Spanish.
     
  12. soujiroseta

    soujiroseta Contributor Contributor

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    I speak, dream and think in english almost all of the time, even though shona is my first language although i do find myself uttering shona words on my own when im extremely annoyed and of late ive been dreaming in inaudible japanese which is probably because im trying to learn it:p
     
  13. Gannon

    Gannon Contributor Contributor

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    Mother-tongue English is definitely the dominant, and though not stictly bilingual, though not far from it, I do dream frequently in French and have instants where I can only recall the French for a particular item. It can be embarassing having been exposed to a second language for such a long time that you start to use those aquired constructions in your mother-tongue language much to the bemusement of your audience.
     
  14. Gallowglass

    Gallowglass Contributor Contributor

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    Yes, but each of the Gaelic languages have disproportionate international attention when you consider how small they are (a hundred thousand native speakers and according to the last surveys about twenty-five million non-native speakers). There's Gaelic dictionaries, clan societies, (largely fake) Gaelic merchandise, etc. across America and the Commonwealth.

    And most learners start online, anyway, to avoid the dialect problem :)

    Unilang has a native Gaelic-speaker as an active member and a moderator, and as long as you don't ask for a tattoo translation you'll get correct answers ;)
    Foram na Gaidhlig does have a bilingual section and a few native speakers posting, who are more than willing to help out (although usually they'll just correct your mistakes).
    Tir nam Blog is more likely to be understood than Twitter, even if you can't speak Gaelic ;)

    Oh, and a warning - Irish Gaelic (I've never understood why the Irish don't like it being called that when the language itself doesn't seem to mind), Highland Gaelic, and Manx Gaelic are different languages with many dialects which can range from quasi-Irish to pseudo-Norse, so don't expect them to be too similar.

    And don't be put off by the pronounciation rules, as if you learn them you'll find that they're a lot more regular than those in English.
     
  15. Gigi_GNR

    Gigi_GNR Guys, come on. WAFFLE-O. Contributor

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    I'm really excited for my German classes this school year. I've always been fascinated with German.
     
  16. SAN

    SAN New Member

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    I'm trying to learn Croatian - am just in love with the language... I WISH I was already fluent enough to think in Croatian, sigh. But right now I can't carry on even a simple conversation.
     
  17. Hsnodgrass

    Hsnodgrass New Member

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    I think in a mixture of Ebonics, slang, random foreign words (mostly Spanish), and strange portmanteaus. When I used to smoke "tobacco" it would come out and no one could understand me. It made sense once I explained it but was practically code code otherwise.

    Example: The jam was past milk so Rex and I dipped the crapvertable outerspace.

    Translation: The music was bad so I (from the Big Lebowski, "the royal we") got in the car and left.

    Does that count as being bilingual?
     
  18. arron89

    arron89 Banned

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    Its certainly, erm, something....
     
  19. Leah Woods

    Leah Woods Active Member

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    So just to get the facts straight you're actually learning Croatian? No, seriously? :D It's just strange to hear someone say that. I'm mean it's great thing! Well, if you ever ran into some problems, I could help you... Just saying :redface:

    And back on topic....

    I like to believe that I can speak English fluently, but I'm not so sure. Regardless, most of the time I spend thinking on English, and talking it in every possible occasion.
     
  20. Gigi_GNR

    Gigi_GNR Guys, come on. WAFFLE-O. Contributor

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    I took enough Spanish that I can have the simplest of conversations with someone, but it just wasn't fun for me anymore. I didn't want to learn a language I had no interest in, so I opted for German this year, and I'm excited to take it.
     
  21. Sabreur

    Sabreur Contributor Contributor

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    I took four years of the language in school. I have a knack for languages, or so said my teacher.

    But still, I hated it. German is just not a fun language I think.
     
  22. Gigi_GNR

    Gigi_GNR Guys, come on. WAFFLE-O. Contributor

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    I had a knack for Spanish, and passed the class with flying colors, but I had no passion for it and I just wanted it all out of my head. Plus, at my high school, if you take 3/4 years of the same language you have the option to take the class trip to that country. 3 years of German, you go to Germany, same with French and Spanish, and I didn't want to speak Spanish that long for a trip where we would have to speak it at length. I'd love to go to Spain, just not like that. Germany, though, sounds amazing.
     
  23. Suomyno

    Suomyno Member

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    English is my first language, and I started learning french (well, learning it well) in fourth grade. Now I'm at the point where, whichever of the two languages is surrounding me at the time is the language I think in (ie: at home I think in english, but when I was in Quebec and France, or even in french class, I think in french)
     

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