Does switching between languages also switch personalities?

You should meet the Italian Me. He's an idiot.

I am not fluent in any other languages, but I'll have to agree with the study only because I tend to act different when I have to speak proper English. I'm so Hood

when i speak french i'm a lot nicer.

¡Si, quiero un coche! ¡Tus capacides de la venta son muy eficaces en español!

This is proper interesting. Even the pitch of my voice changes when I speak Spanish, I sound like even more of a wheedling girl than usual, and I can't really express my opinions as strongly as I would en Ingles. Plus, I don't know how to be facetious in Spanish. That's a struggle.

That might be true for some people. When I switch to Creole, I just get really insecure, mostly because I don't have a great command for the language. I get all timid and if you don't know me, you think I'm just extremely shy. I just can't stand hearing my accent.

There is an old saying that explains that with each new language one learns to speak, they gain another new soul....

I can find myself in this.
I can write, and talk fluently in; Turkish, Dutch and English.
And I do notice that I change my personality while talking in either languages.

While speaking Turkish; I tend to be more laid-back, philosophical, and open.
While speaking English; I'm either funny, serious, or both. (at least I try to be)
While speaking Dutch; I'm just plain boring.

(Not to say that I'm not boring while speaking the aforementioned languages.)

this is true when i speak spanish i can express my self much more emotion and passion. While when i speak english i sometimes feel like a robot but it really depends on my mood.

Most people don't consider how much language is tied up with thoughts and culture.

It makes perfect sense to me that different languages extort different personalities.

well looked into the article a lil bit and it was more leaning toward bi-CULTURALS then bilinguals.. ntl. pretty interesting


sincerly
black girl,boricuan stepdad,all white schools,Spanish speaking,hoodrat

It's like listening to a completely different type of music. Of course you completely shift cultural perception. I don't think we could tolerate variation, otherwise.

yea, i feel ya..

whenever i speak inuit, i become a little more cold-hearted..

whenever i speak latin, it feels like a little part inside of me dies..

and whenever i speak javascript, its like nobody can hear me..


:P

They talked about this in my cultural anthro text, its called code switching. It's a big topic in ethnolinguistic studies... Fascinating stuff, really. I only know one language, and I think I am missing out...

This is totally right!!!! When I speak English I don't give a shit. I'm mean and cold blooded. And in Spanish I now don't express the same sweet as before 'cause I feel like it sounds like kind of stupid.....

Now I say more bad words in spanish and in English... they have always come so natural to me!!!!!!!

JEJEJEJE!!!! I FEEL SUCH PEACE OF MIND TO KNOW THERE IS A SCIENTIFIC REASON TO THIS....

You know that scene in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" where King Arthur is "riding" through the town filled with plague victims? In the beginning of that, there's a woman smacking a cat against wall. I feel that I sound exactly like that unfortunate feline when I try to speak outside my native tongue. I'm sure that I sound grating to the ears of native German and Japanese speakers, so to all of you fine German and Japanese folks out there, "Es tut mir Leid" and "ごめなさい".

Interesting study. I would tend to agree with the conclusion based off of experience with bilingual friends and co-workers.

yea i can see that

i get humbler when i speak spanish or portuguese just because i get so nervous and i'm hoping that i'm communicating my thoughts properly

oh, well that's great. As If I'm not mpd enough, I'm learning a new language!
In all seriousness, is this supposed to be new information. Yes, some important collection of intelligent people verified it, but I apologize for having already realized.
English is quite a different language than the tongues of our world. Other languages, in and of themselves speak in different cadences, with different varying levels of respect. I'm learning japanese, and I've learned that there are many specific dialects with each language. Kind of like accents. This is especially noticeable in Oriental tongues. So, you have the many different pronunciations and dialects (if you will) of japanese, and then I learn, that there's actually different tones and words used when having respect.
English is *not* a respected, or respectable language. Learning japanese may be more difficult than I feared. For as it may seem, English may be more respectable than I.

One's mother tongue is formed in a different brain state than is a leaned language. A bilingual home might be a drop different. The "first" language goes to a certain emotional core which has a different sensitivity to emotion than do the subsequent languages.
Then that even changes if the first language is overtaken by the learned tongue in childhood as would be the case in school learning. The brain's language centers are not as sensitive as one ages. That is why a mother tongue's accent has an adolescent cut off point where losing it becomes more and more difficult.

It also depends to whom one is communicating and what their common history is with that language.
The article is very thin and shallow but a good way to open up a conversation on the deeper science. Private Ibber

I can be more myself in Spanish the more I learn. Most jokes seem to be lost in translation, though.

I can confirm that study.
I've grown up bilingual and have the feeling that I'm a different person whenever I speak english.

It's probably due to my lack of rethorics etc. in english compared to my native german language.

I also do have the impression, that people perceive me differently in english. I think, that I do come across quite 'weird' and as a moaner in english, wheras I'm quite nice and just a normal everyday person in german.

Hilfe am ich really noch Ich? hehe.

I've taught both ESL and Spanish, I'm much more interesting/fun/crazy in Spanish than in English.

I am bilingual (German/English) and I would agree with this study. As I switch back and forth to each language there is also a switch in mentality. Certain thoughts or ideas are easier to express in the other language.

Have other bilinguals also noticed that your dreams can be in one or the other? LOL or both!

it changes Carla from Scrubs

Language is the liquid
that we're all dissolved in,
great for solving problems
after it creates a problem.
- Modest Mouse

Oh, and i agree with this study. Language is kind of like the Range Of Motion of your mind, with each language having different ranges in different areas. At least that's the way I see it, from my knowledge of English, Latin, and French.

Same with music. Depending on what you're listening to I'm sure someone could tell how you are feeling at the moment. Or what movie you're watching.

But yes I can see how this happens. Japanese translates into weirdness in English if someone doesn't know what they are doing and the language is more creative than English with the way their written language is more like art than writing. I can see how it would alter how someone reacts and acts.

I've been told that I am overly sweet and delicate when I'm in Spanish mode. Seems like a true study to me.

Yeah, I think I'm more outgoing when I speak Spanish. Well, not outgoing but louder...

I think the culture affects how the language is.

wa wa wee wa!! the exotic one has a better personality on account of being muy caliente!!!

I'm a lot more polite and shy in Spanish, French, and Arabic; but in English I'm very outspoken.

i dont think it effects your personality, you just start to think and use expressions in the way the culture you are speaking uses them, including any tendencies the language usage itself has. You are still yourself, but a mexican version, a french version, a german, version, etc,

At least thats how I feel after studying in different spanish speaking nations

I think its just that different languages require certain behaviors. if you speak frech it's goin to be flowy and pretty! While German is choppy so your going to act different in some ways.

I think that the language thing does change you a bit, but nothing even close to Dr. Jekyl /Mr. Hyde type stuff, that would be pretty ridiculous.

I'm bilingual french-english and am somewhat bi-cultural after several years in France .

It was frustrating at first to not have the vocabulary and cultural nuances to translate my humor and sarcasm so I felt really boring. I also had trouble figuring out who i was in that context and have spent the last few years constructing a french version of myself, a lot like the american one, but a little different.

Tone of voice in different cultures : when my French boyfriend and I would discuss in French around my Minnesotan family, they thought we were fighting.

The amount of vocabulary affects the complexity of your thoughts. People with higher vocabulary are capable of having ideas on a higher level. I speak only a little bit of Spanish but I can see how speaking another language could put you in the mindset of the poeple in that culture.

The German me is far more confident