What is it like to know two languages?

To all multilingual ones here, I pose this question: what is it like knowing multiple languages? Do you think in different languages, change when the environment does, or switch between them randomly? Do you ever get your words mixed up (i.e., you're talking to an English speaker but instead of saying cheese you say queso)? Do you find that knowing another language helps or hinders your understanding of your native one?

Pick and choose whatever you want to answer, but thank you for your time either way!

Well, sometimes I get my words mixed up. I might say "pedir" when I mean "preguntar" because I think of it as "ask" (The former as in "he asked me to go to the market" and the latter being "He asked me my age"). Not always, of course, but in slurred or casual speech I might do that.

I think in different languages all the time, I'd say I switch them randomly. Usually I think "saying that in English would have been much clearer." But I think knowing other languages helps my understanding of Spanish. You get to see all the meanings a single word has.

But I never say an English word when I'm speaking Spanish, at least, not unintentionally.

i can think in english but it's harder and slower thinking

Native:Englsh
Fluent:Japanese

Do you think in different languages
Absolutely
 change when the environment does
Of course
 or switch between them randomly
This always happens but you get better at it
 Do you ever get your words mixed up (i.e., you're talking to an English speaker but instead of saying cheese you say queso)?
Not really. Well, Japanese make their own English and occasionally I'll forget if it works in English or not. It's not rare to forget a word in English and just say it in Japanese. (If you only know one language, maybe you don't know if you're forgetting a word or not so you go around it naturally?)
 Do you find that knowing another language helps or hinders your understanding of your native one?
Both. Ultimately, I understand the rules of English 100x better thanks to Japanese. I am using Japanese a lot and I would imagine just for regular chit-chat, my English has gotten slightly worse, but easily fixed

Sometimes if I'm drunk and I say something about another language I speak or use a word from it (usually after being asked something about the language or country) I switch languages in mid sentence without really noticing. Also when I wake up I get kind of stuck in the language I was dreaming in until I'm completely awake.

When I'm clear headed I'd say the only time I can get a little mixed up is if I'm trying to read while someone's talking to me.

i speak to my girlfriend in both english and gaelic and we switch mid-sentence all the time.

when i've been alone for a while i always go back to thinking in german though, even though i hardly speak it anymore

I do often find myself thinking in English or German, which is worrying considering that I rarely use those languages in real life... (college classes, internet, newspapers, tv)

What is it like to know two languages?

Voelt goed man

>>8
I loled <3

Learning another lagnauge really helped my English, especially since my english sucked in the first place.

As for how it feels knowing multiple languages? Well, with the amount of effort you put into it, and how painfully slow progress can often be, it's not uncommon to simply lose all inital enthusiasim along the way. You just learn a little bit more every day, and then then one day you just kind of read something in your target language, or just do some routine exersizes and you realize you're not reling on external sources at all, and you're all like "Well I'll be, I guess I'm really now fluent, huh". It's no big "deal", in fact, to me, it felt more of a big scam. All the same, feels good man. Would recommend.

What is it like to know two languages?
Beats the shit out of knowing only one ;-)

>What is it like to know two languages?
Osećaj je dobar, čoveče

I keep my languages seperate, I don't mix up shit or something like that.
However, I always need some time to acclimate to a foreign language environment before words come fluently.

>>3
how do you "think" in a language? I don't think in a particular language.

>>14
Are you a wolf-child?

>>14
I bet you're an Amerifag.

>>14
were you brought up with more than 1 language?

Useful thing about thinking in another language is completely abandoning your native one. Like, you don't have to think how Japanese sentences correspond to English, you just need speak how it feels right.

yes, I've messed the terms a bit, but anything goes

I generally think in Swedish, sometimes, like now, I think in English. While in Bosnia for long time, I start to think in Bosnian. Sometimes, completly randomly I'll start to ponder in German.

>>14
>>17
No. I just don't understand what people mean by that. I guess they mean thinking about grammar and how to translate stuff when talking to a person in that language? I don't do that. I speak fluent English but it's no different to speaking German for me, which is my native language. It's all a matter of practice. Well, and you probably need to be a little talented as well.

how do you "think" in a language? I don't think in a particular language.

Are you autistic? I read that severe autists think exclusively in pictures. Although I'm not sure I'm willing to believe that this is actually possible. A mind with no words? o_0

>>21
You seem to be confusing some things. Thinking in a language does not mean saying words out loud. Thoughts are abstract, a child learns the means of putting out those thoughts at the ages of 4 or 5 onwards. That's when we start using our native tongue, and that's what those of us who said "we think in multiple languages" were referring to. If you don't do it like that, you're no more talented than an autistic person (as >21 pointed out), because you have no means of outputting your thoughts.

How can you NOT think in a language? "I should really buy some milk." No?

>>23
Yeah, but you don't think in a language. What language are animals supposed to think in? Language is not a medium through which we think, it's a medium through which we communicate with one another. You don't "think" any different at all when you speak to a person in a foreign language.

I think in Dutch (native) and English. I only think in English when I day dream or when I go to bed though. I don't mix up words or anything altough I find it embarrassing when I don't find the Dutch word for something I know in English.

>>24
Yes, you DO think using a language, save for the mentally retarded and those who have never been immersed into an environment that uses language. It IS a medium through which we think, that's exactly what it is. Phonemes are a medium through which we communicate, language is something we use to articulate our abstract thoughts in our minds. You either know nothing of what you're talking about or you're just trolling.

>>24
Here, read up on it if you're not too lazy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognition
Language is an integral part of a Human's thinking process at our stage of evolution.

>>22
>>23

There are two ways to think: consciously (which >>23 is referring to) and subconsciously (which >>22 is referring to).

When you are thinking in a language, you think consciously (introspection, i.e. you're having an inner dialogue with yourself). Subconscious thinking itself on the other hand is abstract, as >>22 said, and doesn't require language of any kind.

>>28
nope, it require it too

>>29
Animals don't think, then? Like, at all?

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>>32
Slowly.

>>28
I was just thinking this:
I've never thought once "in english" without making an active effort to verbalize my thoughts to myself in my head.
I find that I think much slower this way, for some reason.

Sometimes I'm convinced that I think in some pseudolanguage and translate it as I speak. I don't know, maybe I just switch randomly.
Sometimes I do get stuck when I just can't seem to get the right word.

I'm surprised by the way people think. Whenever I speak I always have a rouh draft in the back of my head of what I'm about to say. No matter which language. Though, sometimes I get a "pre-thought" which I rapidly convert into a real though.

What is it like knowing multiple languages?

People might think of it as a waste (my family does and constantly bothers me about it), but it's nothing special to me. I grew up in Southern California to hispanic parents, it's no surprise that I spoke Spanish first. They COULD have taught me English first, which would've helped a shitload in kindergarten and first grade, as I kinda struggled with English pronunciation. So now, I avoid speaking it at all costs out of resentment and embarrassment at my horrible pronunciation (of Spanish). I also took four years of French in high school. Feels pretty cool to understand things that most people don't and to carry on conversations with some family members who speak it.

Do you think in different languages, change when the environment does, or switch between them randomly?

I only think in English. Occasionally, I mix things up and attempt thinking in French, just to see how well I can articulate myself. Doesn't last more than a minute.

Do you ever get your words mixed up (i.e., you're talking to an English speaker but instead of saying cheese you say queso)?

Often, when I cannot think of a word in French, I go to the Spanish equivalent and try making it sound French. Same when I don't understand a French word, I try figuring it out with similar-sounding words in Spanish.

Do you find that knowing another language helps or hinders your understanding of your native one?

Understanding French grammar has kind of helped with some stuff in English, not too much. Even if French and English could help my understanding of Spanish, it doesn't matter to me.

>>37
Disregard that, I suck cocks.

>>1
It's not very useful if English is your 1st language in my opinion unless you have a very strong interest in another language for whatever reason (like being able to play japanese video games).

Knowing two languages is freakin' awesome.