What language do you "think" in?

[chris.ph]

has somebody been watching firefox thats how clint flys firefox, thinking in russian. i think in wenglish, thats english with a welsh accent

[Jan Van Quirm]

I had a fairly elderly Hungarian teacher for French and she was also fluent in German (but never used it professionally as she'd been in a labour camp as a teen). This was way back (pre-decimal) when the form teachers used to collect dinner money on Fridays... When she did that she always counted under her breath when she was counting up the money - in Hungarian.

As most of her adult life had been in the UK, she said she definitely thought in English most of the time, except when she was doing her banking and just put it down to something that she'd never had to do using her 'second' languages, so she'd reverted to the one she grew up with. Maybe it's a 'comfort' thing?

[raptornx01]

It is not good enough to simply SPEAK Minbari, you must be able to THINK, in Minbari.

Anyway, its an interesting topic. I've tried to learn a couple languages, always wondered what goes on later on, once you get more fluent, if you actively translate or what.

[Conforumist]

I think that was aimed at at spam that was done in russian and not you Natalya. Your English works fine here

Oh, really? I think that "russian girl" is about me although I'm more 'woman' than 'girl'.
Thank you, Pip and Tiffany!

Yes Natalya, you were correct about it being you! I was just poking a little fun at you. I know you're a good sport.

[michelanCello]

I had a fairly elderly Hungarian teacher for French and she was also fluent in German (but never used it professionally as she'd been in a labour camp as a teen). This was way back (pre-decimal) when the form teachers used to collect dinner money on Fridays... When she did that she always counted under her breath when she was counting up the money - in Hungarian.

Same here - I mean that whatever language it is, I can only count in Hungarian I can of course count in other languages, but since I'm not so good at maths, I guess it's more comforting not having to pay attention to the language beside those difficult numbers

[Sister Jennifer]

Good topic. Always interested to know about the inner workings of a multilinguist.

What language do you swear in?

[Conforumist]

Good topic. Always interested to know about the inner workings of a multilinguist.

What language do you swear in?

Jen' shame on you!
It always seems to be more languages than one can "speak" in.

[The Mad Collector]

Same here - I mean that whatever language it is, I can only count in Hungarian

Interesting, Lena who is from Gothenburg and runs a cafe here that I go to regularly for Swedish coffee and cakes, always counts in Swedish. She will be happily talking to you in English but when you pay she adds up and calculates the change in Swedish then immediately drops back to English when she gives you the money

[janet]

What language do you swear in?

As a student in the 60s I had a summer job as a waitress. The Yugoslav couple who ran the hotel taught me to swear in Serbo-Croat
Mostly %$*&")& English though

[raptornx01]

What language do you swear in?

HA i'd be interested in that as well. Thats usually the first words you learn in another language. i know i did. and even though i never got very far with the languages i tried to learn i still sometimes swear in them despite being solely an english speaker. sometimes i even do it unconsciously and catch myself after.

and we had a support manager at my old store who was spanish but spoke perfect english, until she got angry. then she'd slip in and out of spanish, often several times during a sentence, without realizing it and would certainly curse in it. we'd have to ask her to calm down and speak slower otherwise no one could understand her.

[janet]

Please explain the Minbari ref Raptornx01

[raptornx01]

Its a Babylon 5 reference. the line is said to one of the Human characters when she wonders why she can't be allowed to command a minbari ship during a battle. basically, having to translate in her head would take too long.

the line popped in my head when i read the title here

[janet]

Thank you I never really got round to following too many SF series. My knowledge begins and ends with the original Star Trek

[Dotsie]

I've been known to swear in Klingon

I'll get me coat.

[Tonyblack]

I'm hopeless at languages, but after my trips to the Netherlands I found myself saying 'thank you' to people in Britain in Dutch.