Very well, the most of us agreed that thinking in different language is possible if you know these languages rather well.
But it’s very difficult to speak(and think) several languages at the same time. Some years ago I was in Poland at the summit of language teachers. I was asked to help translating for a group of teachers from 6 countries. Being a brave man, I agreed and translated for them from Russian into English, from English into German, from German into Russian, and a bit from French and Polish into English, German and into Russian. An hour later I was sweaty though I speak Russian, German and English fluently.
Reading Evguen40’s comment above, the following question occurred to me:
If two people are speaking to you in different languages simultaneously, do you think you can understand what they want to say? Can you think in different languages simultaneously?
In my opinion, thinking in different language simultaneously (and rapidly) is impossible because we must say our main idea (what I think) to other persons quite rapidly and fluently. It needs many skills. Maybe we think the meaning in a certain language (I don’t know if it is a mother tongue) but do not think it in different languages.
If one gives me enough time, we can prepare to speak different languages.
After enough training, I can speak different languages quite fluently, but thinking something in different languages is the other thing. I can not express different emotions naturally like native speakers; crying, taking nervous, laughing, etc, can not discuss several subjects with native speakers.
Sorry, I made a mistake.
In my opinion ,if one gives us enough time, we can prepare to say something in different languages.
Enough time depends on persons, someone can say it in one minute, someone in one hour…
Hi, Falcao!!!
Ha-ha-ha! You are lucky! In my dream I spoke in English poorly just as in real life.
There is a period of about 10 minutes, just before I fall asleep, when I can not only think in fluent Russian (something I can’t normally do) but I can also compose music (something else I can’t normally do).
I think it’s a brainy-falling asleepy sort of thing.
@YutakaM: I believe listening to some different languages simultaneously is possible because it is some sort of ‘passive thinking’. But to answer at the same time in different languages is much more difficult because every language has own pattern of thinking, perceiving and expressing - and without some active penetration into all these important things for a language your conversation will be clumpsy like a google machine translation.
Unconscious processes are mystery for us! The period (just before to fall asleep) shows part of this mystery.
Normally the last hour before falling asleep turns into a storm of words and phrases in different languages. Translating everything I hear into every language I know. I tell myself to stop doing that but I can’t. That’s one of the things I don’t like about this language learning thing. I feel like I’m going crazy.
My thoughts would normally go like this… “dos… two… dois… deux… due… zwei… oh I’m twenty-five… veinticinco… twenty-five… vinte e cinco… vingt-cinq… venticinque… fünfundzwanzig…” and this can go on and on and on. I honestly don’t like it and would love to find a way to make it stop.
“If two people are speaking to you in different languages simultaneously, do you think you can understand what they want to say? Can you think in different languages simultaneously?” Y. M.
Yes. But I can only speak with fork-ed tongue.
Speaking in different language modes at the same time is impossible with only one mind and one tongue, and I suppose I cannot think in more than one mode simultaneously even if it is “passive” listening. I seem to have no forked ears.
I often take the train to London and am able to listen in to a multitude of languages at the same time, people do love to be heard by others on a train …as to speaking two languages simultaneously: I am great at mixing up languages in one sentence, does that count?
@ Raqui2010: Uggh, wise resident of the west, could I be I recognising writing styles as well? Are you speaking with forked tongue when you write you can only speak with forked tongue?
Some people are supposed to have two tongues(二枚舌) in their mouths in Japan.
So it looks, as if the native Americans and the Japanese had common linguistic roots somewhere…
Recently I had a job as an interpreter in court, and I interpreted between
the suspect ( non Japanese ) and the layer ( Japanese ).
It was so complicated that once I started to talk to the layer in English.
I think I need two tongues.
I thought: to have two tongues means to be very talkative, chatty. It is so in japanese, isn’t it?
We have in Russian an expression: ‘to have a long tongue’ with two meanings:1. not to be able to keep a secret 2. to gossip, to speak a lot about the others.
An interesting idiom we havе in German: ‘Das Herz auf der Zunge haben’( to have a heart on the tongue) - about the people who can’t keep secrets.
Or in English: with tongue in cheek - to speak not seriously, to joke.
And one more expression: to hold one’s tongue - to keep a secret.
All these exsamples show that different languages notice different details at the same thing - and this is wonderful, especially if you can speak and think in them.
@cherry6120: I am sure the lawyer was very flattered that you spoke English to him!
I was just joking. I don’t have trouble hearing and understanding more than one language at the same time. I’m sure a lot of language enthusiasts enjoy a smorgasbord of
languages in the airport, at international conferences, etc. Of course, I can only speak one at a time. I would be lying (speaking with forked tongue) if I claimed I could do that.
Falcao, hi!
About how to find a way to stop it (words and phrases in different languages before you fall asleep). Try to think about anything specific and pleasant for you. Try to distract your brain from languages. As for me I think about sea, sand, etc in that case. Or you can use your memory about travels and other fine events.