My mother is in the throes of learning a foreign language – and I am doing my best to help. I am bilingual in English and Russian. There are definitely lots of people more talented at languages than I, but I am always surprised at how exceedingly rare people with near-perfect grammar and pronunciation in two languages actually are. Indeed, it is one of the things that stops me from wanting to learn another language – knowing how hard it is to get to proficiency.
In my attempt to help out with my mam’s progress, I found a lecture from this polyglot on the psychology of learning a language. He made a very interesting point:
in order to speak a different language you need to mentally switch wavelength and adopt a new persona. He argues that a language has a certain emotional state associated with it.
I don’t think it’s as literal as “happy vs sad”, but it’s more like a feeling you get when you speak a language. To be blunt about it, I imagine if I tried to speak Italian I would be more laid back and extroverted than if I tried to speak German. Indeed,
a few of my close friends remark that my mannerisms, tone and timbre all change when I switch between my two native languages. I had zero insight into this until I was told about it.
On reflection, I realised that a friend of mine who is fluent in German and English does something similar. He kind of seems to look at his shoes more when he speaks German – and seems generally less approachable.
I also feel quite different when I am speaking English vs Russian. This is going to sound like I’ve lost the plot, but I can think of no better way to describe it.
In English, things are slick – like an iPhone. In Russian, things are deep and meaningful – like Dostoevsky.
I like to listen to podcasts. I realised that listening to a good podcast in Russian made me see the speaker as being intelligent, whereas a good podcast in English made me feel that the speaker is competent. The difference is subtle and so cliché! It gets worse. The Russian speaker always seems a little too direct – though not aggressive – and the English speaker seems a little sales-pitchy. I mean that’s just caricature-worthy – but also true.
It looks like I am susceptible to the “national stereotype” biases even though I am well able to play for both sides and understand that these are just biases.
Much as I hate to admit it, I think I am also more polite when I speak English – and probably more tolerant. At the same time, I would also tend to oversimplify things more when speaking English.Perhaps having to speak English as a lingua franca has changed the world. The Financial Times has an interesting published an article portraying the ultimate beneficiaries of this arrangement as its victims here, arguing that China and Russia understand the USA and UK much better than they understand the rest of the world.
English is a language that doesn’t really allow for long sentences because there aren’t sufficiently complex noun and adjective endings, verb conjugations, etc to show what belongs where in a long sentence. For example, a typical German sentence is longer – because they do have the necessary grammatical framework.
In order to make sense in English, sentences have to be short and declarative – and by proxy, so do one’s thoughts.
All in all, there is definitely a persona-migration that happens in my head when I switch languages.
But that, as usual, got me thinking.
Adopting a persona to do any task at all is a thing. It’s not limited to languages. It’s a bit like having an implicit role model. It’s a dangerous game to play though.
On the one hand, it seems to make things easier. If one imagines themselves as a competent surgical trainee from Gray’s Anatomy, studying for medical finals get that little bit easier. However, isn’t this a departure from reality? I really like the point brought up in Steven Pressfield’s War of Art: imagining yourself as a poet/artist/programmer/whatever – is only a vanity project. The point isn’t to define oneself as a poet/artist/programmer/whatever, the point is to make poems/art/code/whatever. Acting in a role, faking it until you make it is well and good, but travelling too far out into the world of alter-egos, be they Italian or surgical, should be done with a lot of insight.
A millennial's musings 
At times speaking in two languages gets tiring
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Very interesting article, that I can 100% relate too. I’m bilingual in English and Dutch, and also speak a good amount of German. I feel like the English language misses so many words, so whilst it is technically ‘easier’ to express myself in English, it isn’t, because the words aren’t there. Then there’s the difference in tone, and the harsh G in Dutch that gives the language a completely different vibe. It’s a content struggle to keep both language on par, and I’m slightly sad that English is winning. Great post, and lovely blog too.
Would you be interested in writing/sharing a couple of articles regarding issues such as life, identity and self-awareness on Creators.co? I’d love to see more if this kind of content on the platform as we continue to branch out. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail for more information. You can find my contact details on my blog. Hope to hear from you.
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Thanks Charlotte. Fellow tea addict?! Match made in heaven! Will shoot you an email for sure 🙂
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One of your best posts, Martina! Well done 🙂
Really, really interesting stuff. My two cents about languages and different personalities – I noticed that I don’t usually get offended by words said in English, however, the same phrase said in Russian would make me feel really sad. Strange, huh?
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Thank you! Yes, I am 100% the same. Especially with curse words – they always upset me 10 times more in Russian.
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Reblogged this on Maëlle by Yaryna.
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Languages are irrelevant. The most efficient way to communicate is by thought itself. We are closely approaching that stage where languages will be an archaic art form.
Check this Documentary:
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Point is in the fluidity by which your mind can switch gears to interpret different bodies of knowledge.
I can speak Engineering, Finance, Military, Philosophy, etc, etc or English, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish.
Human language is comprised of culture, idioms, history, and art.
Languages of science or study is comprised of ideas, concepts, heuristics, and logic. Science can be spoken thru the natural language or elegantly summarized by a different language called Mathematics.
E=mc^2 OR read a tome about how cool Einstein is as a person and his discovery. Mathematicians and Physicists can know the former and say, yeah that’s cool, and generalists can appreciate the latter but not so much the former while the higher educated can appreciate both.
Last part was from Feynman discussing Art and Physics with his buddy who taught him how to draw. Depth of appreciation attained through higher forms of knowledge and different vantage points.
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Beautiful blog.
Blog such an ugly word no? Essay-log. Croni-log, Hmm, journalog — there, that’s better.
Profession actors must “become” their characters no? If you put on a sombrero and a serape would you feel more laid back and relaxed? (Like I would do if I were in Mexico). If you put on a military uniform do you adopt another persona? I wonder if language is one of the best conduits to altering one’s persona? But that there are others. The manner in which I write as Anonymole, a nom de plume (or netdonym), is different from that which I write with when I use my real name.
Linguistically, would you think *intentionally* adopting another persona while learning a new language would help you learn that language?
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Interesting insights. Yes, I do actually. Someone you’re comfortable with though.
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And thank you for your kind words, Anonymole (that’s a v clever netdonym!)
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i am a Russian speaker as a second language myself and tend to agree with your observations about the nuances…a lot can be said also about how media landscape reduces these nuances and provides translations that have political aims and are not always accurate eg. Russian tends to be portraited as agressive and less trustworthy in discourses…
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This is so incredibly true. I try not to watch political news beyond the basics, but whenever I hear dubbed/subtitled stuff said by Putin thats’s translated, it always seems to be made worse by the translation!
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totally agree
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I speak Dutch, English, French, German, Spanish and Indonesian. I worked as a tour-guide for a while and have no problem switching from one language to another. But I prefer to think and talk in English or Spanish.
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