native english speaker... I feel it easier to be brusk and borderline rude when speaking French, but also appear to be timid and shy in that language, and probably also humorless. In english, i'm the exact opposite
Do you have a different personality when you speak a different language?
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Re: Do you have a different personality when you speak a different language?
#22I live in America and only speak swiss german with my wife. Apparently I talk like a girl when I speak swiss now.
I had the same problem when learning Japanese. Whether teachers or friends, I didn't often speak it with other men, and definitely picked up some softer turns of phrase and pronunciations. Once I became able to hear this in myself I started overcompensating somewhat, and had a few people comment that I sounded unusually brusque or was saying something almost cartoonishly masculine. I don't think there was anything in…
That's interesting and pretty hilarious. Did you ever find a middle ground between the soft turns of phrases and being cartoonishly masculine?
The part about the "more limited set of words available" is the same for me. My vocab is okay, but strongly biased toward certain (mainly household) topics.
Re: Do you have a different personality when you speak a different language?
#23I'm a native English speaker and relatively fluent Japanese speaker. I used to speak only Japanese for several days straight, dreamed in Japanese, thought in Japnese etc. when I lived there.
There are words in Japanese I cannot translate to English - any translation just has the wrong meaning outside of the Japanese context.
My friends who've seen me speak in both languages say I have quite different personalities in each language. I would say that it's primarily related to the cultural context I learned the words in.
In the same way different groups of friends bring out different aspects of me, so too do different languages.
Re: Do you have a different personality when you speak a different language?
#24i grew up speaking german and i live in SF. I call bullshit on TFA, because last time I checked the german speaking area was culturally diverse in the traits mentioned. Repeating stereotypes: people in Vienna don't yell and call bullshit on people (they are more likely to talk behind each other's backs), while people in Berlin yell at each other all the time to resolve conflicts (which seems way more healthy to me).…
"people in Berlin yell at each other all the time to resolve conflicts" Oh, I thought the real German stereotype was that you sued people if they annoyed you even the slightest.
That's American.
Re: Do you have a different personality when you speak a different language?
#25i grew up speaking german and i live in SF. I call bullshit on TFA, because last time I checked the german speaking area was culturally diverse in the traits mentioned. Repeating stereotypes: people in Vienna don't yell and call bullshit on people (they are more likely to talk behind each other's backs), while people in Berlin yell at each other all the time to resolve conflicts (which seems way more healthy to me).…
"people in Berlin yell at each other all the time to resolve conflicts" Oh, I thought the real German stereotype was that you sued people if they annoyed you even the slightest.
The US is famous for their lawyer epidemic and nutcase lawsuits like McDonalds coffee that is too hot.
Re: Do you have a different personality when you speak a different language?
#26Personality might be affected by culture, but not by language itself.
Re: Do you have a different personality when you speak a different language?
#27I have an unpublished, unfinished PhD thesis investigating this question. I'm working on getting permission to publish it, but for now I can only give you the summary. The author administered standardised personality tests to people tested as fluently bi-lingual in English and German. Each of the four possibilities was tested. Everyone got both tests, some tested first in English, the others first in German. Each gro…
Here's a bit of my experience to back up how hard it is to separate out the cultural aspect: The English singular 'you' has two words for it in German, 'sie' and 'du'.
The first one is used in situations where there is some distance between the speakers, the second when they are (much) more familiar. It used to be fairly unheard of to hear a German 'subordinate' use 'du' to their superior, whereas in English it would be impossible to even express the difference.
So in Germany workplace relationships tend to have a sense of distance between the various strata. Even if you didn't want to change your personality the simple fact that you'd address your superior in this way would make you behave differently (and so you would show a more deferential personality), because associated with that distance are a whole pile of other personal traits.
It's not as strict as it used to be, but the difference is definitely still there.
Re: Do you have a different personality when you speak a different language?
#28I have an unpublished, unfinished PhD thesis investigating this question. I'm working on getting permission to publish it, but for now I can only give you the summary. The author administered standardised personality tests to people tested as fluently bi-lingual in English and German. Each of the four possibilities was tested. Everyone got both tests, some tested first in English, the others first in German. Each gro…
Here's a bit of my experience to back up how hard it is to separate out the cultural aspect: The English singular 'you' has two words for it in German, 'sie' and 'du'. The first one is used in situations where there is some distance between the speakers, the second when they are (much) more familiar. It used to be fairly unheard of to hear a German 'subordinate' use 'du' to their superior, whereas in English it would…
Same in Spanish ('usted' and 'tu', respectively).
Re: Do you have a different personality when you speak a different language?
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here's a bit of my experience to back up how hard it is to separate out the cultural aspect: The English singular 'you' has two words for it in German, 'sie' and 'du'. The first one is used in situations where there is some distance between the speakers, the second when they are (much) more familiar. It used to be fairly unheard of to hear a German 'subordinate' use 'du' to their superior, whereas in English it would…
Same in Spanish ('usted' and 'tu', respectively).
And in most Indian languages.