To people who were born speaking a language then moved to somewhere with a different language. Do you find your inner monologue speaking the new language or do you think natively and translate for speech?

  • 𝕽𝖚𝖆𝖎𝖉𝖍𝖗𝖎𝖌𝖍@midwest.social
    5·
    3 days ago

    I’m American (US) but when I lived in Germany, by the end of two years there I thought in German. I remember it, but there are two anecdotes that underscore it:

    1. When I returned to the States, I’d occasionally not be able to remember the English word for some things. I lost “trashcan” for a good half hour, once.
    2. I occasionally talk in my sleep, and for a few years after I returned my wife would sometimes tell me that I was speaking German.

    I didn’t spend much time around English speakers when I lived there; I met my wife the year after I returned, and the person I was seeing when I lived in Germany had barely spoken English.