how many foreign languages you can speak ?

[zapatos]

how do you remember the new words ?

i write them on post-it note. not very effective.

I often try to picture things, usually sort of outrageous.

 

I picture 10 forks stuck into the front of a door. Tenedor. Fork.

[krash661]

i do not speak any other languages except for english.

 

but i always have this question in mind.

english is my native language,

so my mind thinks in english.

my question is,

 

when an individual learns a language other than their native,

does the mind still think in the native language ?

[Externet]

..."when an individual learns a language other than their native,

does the mind still think in the native language ?"

 

At the beginning, you think in your native language. With time, practice and actual conversation in the new language, you start switching more often according to the intensity of a conversation.

 

Been told that the best engineered language is korean; but learning a language and a new alphabeth is much harder.

[krash661]

..."when an individual learns a language other than their native,

 

does the mind still think in the native language ?"

 

At the beginning, you think in your native language. With time, practice and actual conversation in the new language, you start switching more often according to the intensity of a conversation.

 

Been told that the best engineered language is korean; but learning a language and a new alphabeth is much harder.

interesting.

thanks.

[John Cuthber]

People don't think in any language- at least not always.

[fresh]

Practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice...

If you use the new words several times in a sentence, you will remember it easily.

Practice....practice....even for 100 times.

Don't you think we all have poor memory ? why we human couldn't evolve into having elephant's memory ? Elephants never forget.

Edited May 18, 2013 by fresh

[Popcorn Sutton]

I've convinced myself that I can learn enough of any language within 9 days to make it by in society. Give me a cellphone and I might even be able to reduce it to 5 or 6. At this point I speak these languages.

 

English (natively)

Spanish (very fluently)

Japanese (could use work)

Thai (could use work)

 

And if you want to count computer languages, I currently use Python with great fluency for my purposes. I'm going to work on html and java in the near future, but I've been putting that aside for a little while.

 

My trick is to find a friend who you can speak with. Chatroulette is a great way to meet new friends, you can even specify the countries of origin for the interlocutor you desire. However, you can do it using the method of Rosetta Stone etc, but you are much more likely to learn the language when it is necessarily sufficient in specific contexts.

Edited May 30, 2013 by Popcorn Sutton

[CaptainPanic]

when an individual learns a language other than their native,

does the mind still think in the native language ?

 

No.

I can think, dream, reason and argue in two languages: English and Dutch. And I only started learning English at the age of about 10 -12.

[Markus Hanke]

I'm fluent in both English and German, and have elementary knowledge of French, Spanish, Samoan, Mandarin ( written & spoken ), and conversational mathematics.

 

Yes indeed - I consider mathematics a language in its own right.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Markus Hanke

[ydoaPs]

I've got English and German, a fair bit of Mexican Spanish, and a very tiny bit of Arabic. I start learning Mandarin next semester.

 

No.

I can think, dream, reason and argue in two languages: English and Dutch. And I only started learning English at the age of about 10 -12.

After most of a semester of Arabic I started dreaming in Arabic, but I don't remember ever dreaming in German or Spanish.

[Markus Hanke]

I dream and think in English 95% of the time, even though that is not my first language. Mind you, it took a few years after I started to be exposed to English for that to happen.

I start learning Mandarin next semester.

 

Good luck

[ydoaPs]

I'd say my thinking split for English/German is 80/20. Then again, my housemate speaks German a lot around the house so that could cause me to kick into German mode more often than I otherwise would.

[EdEarl]

I can think in English, but my best ideas come when I let my mind idle and English thinking is minimal or stopped.

[Delta1212]

To me, that looks A LOT like Dutch. I'd probably have mistaken it for some old form of Dutch had you not given it away. Also, looks so similar to the Scandinavian languages, I could probably almost work out what it says. Interesting stuff.

I had the same thoughts about both the similarity to Dutch and the Scandinavian languages. I speak neither, but I can make out some Dutch and a lot of the Frisian version of the prayer just from the similarity to German.

 

I'd say my thinking split for English/German is 80/20. Then again, my housemate speaks German a lot around the house so that could cause me to kick into German mode more often than I otherwise would.

Probably. I rarely think in German anymore, but back when I was using it more frequently I'd sometimes slip into it and it'd be a few minutes before I realized I wasn't thinking in English.

 

Oddly, I've dreamed in Spanish but never German, despite my German being generally better.

Edited June 5, 2013 by Delta1212