For people who are fluent in 3+ languages, what language do they think in?

---

monolingual wrote:

Maybe kind of an ignorant question, but for those rare people who speak a number of languages and speak 2-3+ fluently, how do they think? I've known a few people who are so fluent in at least two that they can go back and forth between the two effortlessly and do so many times per day. I also just watched a video of Viggo Mortenson speaking 7 different languages. How do people like this think?

---

It depends on the topic. Some topics lend themselves particularly to certain languages. When I write a poem, I think in French. When I write a technical documentation, I think in German. When I want to troll, I think in English.

I always think in my native language of English, even when in the midst of a conversation with someone in another language; I basically do simultaneous translations in my head.
Occasionally, however, I have dreams where myself and the other participants are speaking in one of my non-native languages, and in those dreams I'm thinking in that language as well,

99% of the time in my native language.

Honestly, I don’t even think about it.

I speak American, British, and a little Aussie. I have to change which language I’m thinking in based upon the company I’m keeping. Many words have different (opposite) meanings across the pond: e.g. “moot” and “table it”. You can offend people quickly (or get offended quickly) if you have to translate everything back and forth.

I shared university accomodation with a Pakistani girl who spoke fluent English. When she was on the phone to her friends she would literally switch between English and Urdu (or whatever) in the middle of sentences.

I think in the language that I’m speaking at the time exclusively. With some friends we will speak a mixture of two languages because they are comfortable with this. I never initiate that kind of talking but I roll w it when they do. When I’m alone I think in my first language 70% of the time and in my second language 30% of the time. Reverse those percentages when I am in a country where I’m speaking my second language.

I can speak 4 languages, understand another 2... English was my 4th language I learned, as an adult, and I have been living in the U.S. for the past 25 years... 99% of my conversations are in English and therefore I think, and dream, in English only. It’s been like that for more than 20 years... IIRC, I kind of naturally switched after about 3-4 years of living here;)

I’m in Thailand now and I find myself thinking more in Thai, primarily because I’m focused on speaking the language.

Also dream in Thai from time to time.

I speak only one language flunetly but i can converse in spanish and vietnamese.

My wifes entire family is fluent in both english and vietnamese. The older generation learned English after vietnamese and the younger learned the languages simultaneously. The toughest part of the dealing with it is that a conversation can change languages mid-sentence. I just can’t switch that fast. I guess that’s true fluency.

I asked a friend this Q a few years ago. She grew up speaking Albanian Italian and English. With no hesitation she said 'English it is so much more expressive'.

My native language is Spanish but I think in English. I just now tried thinking in Spanish and it felt weird. It's also weird that when I speak Spanish, I think of what I'm going to say in English but the words come out in Spanish.

Good topic...

---

I hate when people change in the mid wrote:

I speak only one language flunetly but i can converse in spanish and vietnamese.

My wifes entire family is fluent in both english and vietnamese. The older generation learned English after vietnamese and the younger learned the languages simultaneously. The toughest part of the dealing with it is that a conversation can change languages mid-sentence. I just can’t switch that fast. I guess that’s true fluency.

---

You don't think in a language, unless you have a weird brain.

English, Swahili, French and Italian.

I'm as fluent as you can get in the first two but have to make mental translations for the other two even though I speak both fairly well. And while English and Swahili were both spoken around me growing up, I just realised I never think or dream in Swahili because my work environment and social circles are populated by people who mainly default to English (even though they can, and often do, switch between English and Swahili). In Kenya this changes from family to family, neighbourhood or school.

I speak Chinese, English and some Japanese.
Think in Chinese predominantly, as the vast majority of people I deal with speak Chinese(actually Cantonese, to be more specific). Heck, I live in HK.

English is my first language and my French is pretty good. When I’m immersed in a French environment and have to speak mostly French I often think in French. It’s to me less tiring trying to be mentally translating in my head all the time, and anyway a direct translation often isn’t the best way of expressing the same idea in both languages. It’s pretty funny when my wife, also raised in English, and I are surrounded by French speakers and in a French conversation, and we have a side conversation and forget to switch back to English, even though we both have to work pretty hard to carry on a good conversation in French.

Good topic!

It's context and experience dependent. When I'm at work I speak and think in Spanish when teaching, although I think and write in English (I'm a university professor). When I'm at home or by myself I think only and speak mostly in English. When I'm running I think in English. When I'm having sex I think in Spanish.

I'm American born with no Spanish speakers in my family. I started speaking Spanish in 7th grade and took it for five years. I have a good ear for accents and many think I'm from a South America. I can think in Spanish--except for numbers-- which I thought was the key to mastering a language. Several speech therapist/pathologists have told me that's not the case for most people. I'm convinced that had I lived in Europe I would speak multiple languages. I'm left-handed (possibly ambidextrous like many in my family), most likely right brain dominant, and have a near photographic number memory. I'm curious if any of these traits run with the facility for multiple languages.