What language do you dream in?

While at a friend's place for dinner, she asked me a question that stumped me.  No one has ever asked me this question.

"What language do you dream in?"

I had to pause and think.  After pondering for a while and trying to remember some of my dreams, my response was English most of the time.  No sure why, but I felt disappointed.

She then asked, "When you're angry, what language comes out first?"

I didn't have to think about his one, my immediate answer was Spanish.  We sat and laughed while wondering why we think, speak and dream in different languages.  Do others think about this?  How many people have been asked this question?  What would your answer be?




Interestingly enough, both of us speak several languages so not surprising that we would have to think a bit before responding.  For those who are unilingual the answer would be straight forward, or so we would assume.




We both laughed when I said Spanish comes out first when I'm angry.  My kids agreed.  I've always told my friends that Latin parents give their children several names for one very good reason.  When they're angry they call you by your full name yelling at the top of their lungs.  This is when you know it's time to run because you're in big trouble.  Growing up the minute my mother was referring to me by my full name, I was very afraid.  If she added, "Wait until your father gets home"  I knew I was dead. 




Spanish is my mother tongue, but having studied and worked mostly in English, I find most of my thoughts are in English now.  When it comes to writing, once again most of it is done in English even though the Spanish language is far more expressive and romantic.  Depending on my environment, I find it easy to switch from one language to another but at times I mix them up.  My friends will suddenly stop me and ask me to repeat because I don't even notice.  After all, I know what I'm trying to say!  Lol  It's hilarious when my youngest does the same thing.  She'll start in English, move to French and then throw in some Spanish.  The best part is I understand it all while others sit there looking all confused.  Meanwhile she doesn't even notice what she's done and can't understand why her friends are not responding. 




Both of my parents spoke several languages so I guess it's an inherited talent.  When I had my children I wanted them to be multi-lingual as well.  I strongly believe it is important to be able to communicate with others so the more languages you know the better it is for you.  Travelling in foreign countries can be daunting when you don't speak the language.  Locals are thrilled when tourists are able to speak or at least make the effort to try to speak in their language.   It also makes life so much easier when you feel understood and you can get what you need, especially in emergency situations.
 


I find it sad when people are so opposed to learning another language.  We live in a bilingual country so the opportunity is there.  Why limit yourself?  Best to learn as a young child when your brain is like a sponge and it comes more easily.  I find as I get older it's harder to learn.  We become less patient and our memory isn't as good, at least mine isn't.  I've learned 5 languages already and hope to learn a few more.  Russian is next on my list.  In the meantime I have to brush up on my German and Italian.  I'll have to travel to Europe where I can use them more so I don't lose them.  As they say, practice makes perfect!




One thing I find intriguing is that English is an extremely difficult language to learn.  Overall it's fairly basic.  You don't have a million verb tenses to deal with or refer to things as female or male, but my goodness there is no consistency and if you don't understand what you're reading it can really throw you off.  For example take the word "read".  It is in the present or past tense?  The spelling is identical for both, but in the past tense the "ea" is soft pronounced like "red" while in the present tense it is pronounced "reed".   Then take the combination "gh".  In the word thoughtful the "gh" is silent, but in the word trough the "gh" is pronounced like an "f".  Talk about confusing and those are just a couple of examples, there are hundreds more!  I pointed this out to my mother-in-law who's a teacher and she agreed.  We sat down to examine it in more detail and she was shocked.  She hadn`t realized how contradictory the English language can be.  Spanish on the other hand is probably one of the easiest languages in the world to learn.  I struggled with all the verb tenses and accents, but you pronounce every letter except "h" which is silent making it a very easy language to read.  Can't say the same about Arabic, but I tried.  Mandarin and Arabic are deemed to be the most difficult languages to learn.  Perhaps one day I'll give it another shot, but for now I'll stick to Russian.

I hope the questions made you think.  So, what language do you dream in?  Lol
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