What happens to a person’s behaviour when he or she speaks more than one language?

By Vera Donker

It is often said that a person who is fluent in more than one language does not have the exact same personality in each of these languages. How is it possible that we are not the exact same person when we speak in English as when we speak in Chinese for example? Does it depend on the surroundings, the structure of the language, our ease when speaking a language, or something completely different? And more importantly, does is have positive or negative effects on our behaviour and the results we get while engaging in another language?

The obvious advantages of being bilingual are being able to perform executive functions better (functions that demand planning and prioritising), the possibility to talk with another person in a language that suits their needs better, the prevention of dementia in an older age and the possibility of having multiple personalities and thus different worldviews.

  Benjamin Lee Whorf               (1897-1941)

In the 20th century, an American linguist named Benjamin Lee Whorf held that every language encodes a worldview that is specific to a language and the culture of its speakers. There are two version of this vision, a strong form which supposes that language determines thought and a weak form that says that language influences thoughts and decisions. Many researches have done research about these ideas and most of them have concluded that there is no real proof for the idea that language defines our personality. This does, however, not mean that researches deny that the languages we speak have an influence on how we act and think.

                  Lera Boroditsky                    Cognitive scientist and Professor

Lera Boroditsky of Stanford University says that while language is a central part of cognition, there is nothing magical about how language shapes thought. Languages shape our thinking in the same ways that going to medical school or learning to fly a plane also build expertise and transform the way we can do. According to her different languages encourage different kinds of cognitive expertise in their speakers, and as a result, speakers of different languages end up thinking differently. An example of this is that in the Chinese language there is no way to express the future using verbs. A result of this is that for Chinese people the future seems closer to today than it does to for example an English speaker. The influence of this grammatical structure is that Chinese people save more money for their future than English people, the Chinese are 30% more likely to save money in any given year. An explanation is given by behaviour economist Keith Chen. He says that in English the future seems more distant from the present and that makes that we’re less motivated to save money.

There are many explanations as to why a bilingual person can act different in each of the two languages. Most of all because the person doesn’t necessarily have to be bicultural too, depending on the way and time we learn the second language we can speak a second language but not feel engaged in the culture as much as in our first language and culture. Another explanation is that even when a person is bicultural each language can evoke different feelings. Speaking one language can create a feeling of stress for example when it’s the language we use professionally while another language can create a feeling of feeling at home if it’s the language we use to talk to our family. Another reason for a difference in behaviour in different languages is the grammatical structure of a sentence. In some languages the verb can be found at the beginning of the sentence, like in Greek, and this makes it easier for another person to interrupt because they already have to most important information after just one word.

We can thus conclude that speaking more than one language does not necessarily mean that we act in the same manner when speaking them. It shows us the influence of our surroundings and the importance of grammar. What we should always keep in mind when speaking another language is that culture is also a very important part of how we speak and what we say.
For example, Dutch people are known for being very direct and impolite in some countries, but for the Dutch it is more impolite to waist somebody’s time with useless information and formalities than it is to ask directly for something. Some Asian cultures are acting the opposite way. When meeting someone there are many courtesies and formalities you have to keep in mind. A person will also never tell you no directly, they will diverse the conversation or say yes when they mean no just to end the conversation. If you can understand these nuances and behavioural rules depends on what you know about the culture and the language.

The most important thing to keep in mind when speaking more than one language is that you don’t only have to know how to speak the language but also how to engage in a conversation with local people, accept and learn about the culture and be careful not to use the same approach as you would in your mother tongue. There are people specialised in learning you how to deal with people from other cultures and languages, it is a mistake to think that this is not important. Whilst knowing how to speak a language is an important part of being able to communicate with local people, facial expressions, gestures and formulations of sentences are just as important and need to be learned for each language that we speak.
Even if knowing how to speak other languages doesn’t mean we master the culture that comes with it too, being able to speak multiple languages affects the structure of the mind in terms of categorization, memory, perception and self-perception. These are useful skills for anyone who works in a business environment and should encourage everyone to try to learn the languages that seem useful to them, because even if we don’t use them every day, they help us in many ways, both on a personal and a professional level.

Journey Therapy

We love travelling for various reasons: we escape our daily routine, meet new people, and admire wonderful landscapes. We resume this as fun, but we could also live those things in our own place. So why do people prefer travelling? What makes a travel different?

What today scientists and numerous studies back up is that historically travelling implies psychological education; moving away from home is an experience that brings us closer to who we are. When we live in one space we will eventually understand the pattern surrounding it, and therefore we will try to live more efficiently building new behavioral patterns around it: this is called routine, and it’s good for us.

But this routine implies habits, and they are created on the basis of what our surrounding: education, school, and parents showed us. And while it’s well intended, when will eventually build bad habits, habits that may not exist from other point of view. For example not finishing a plate in China, it’s a sign that the host has provided enough to eat, it’s a good thing.  But in America the same act is a subtle insult, an indication that the food wasn’t good enough to finish.

Our thoughts are influenced by the familiar. The brain is a neural web of near infinite possibility, which means that it spends a lot of time and energy choosing what not to notice. As a result, creativity is traded away for efficiency. A bit of distance, however, helps loosen the chains of cognition, making it easier to see something new in the old.  Bad habits will disable us from understand things of ourselves, like activities in which we didn’t  know we were good at, or kind of people we would find interesting, or finding activities we would enjoy.  

Dr Michael H (1989) studied 2 group of students, one which spent time abroad and other at home, in comparison he writes, the overseas group noted benefits such as personal growth, increased tolerance, improved self-understanding, greater openness, greater independence, and increased sophistication. He concluded, "Experience in a foreign country exposes an individual to a variety of influences that may challenge his existing attitudes and values”

In another environment our mind is suddenly awaken from previous mistaken ideas that suppressed us.  When travelling, little problems like –Do I say goodbye or not before going? Where is this bus taking me? This questions impact our immediate life, forcing us to be more creative. We are challenged again.

When we go back home, it may look the same. But it’s us who have changed, and that changes everything.

5 Principles for Learning Languages

By Gonzalo Este, 

Chris Lonsdale is a psychologist, linguist scientist, and educator. He wrote the book "the third ear", based on his studies and experience on learning different languages in the most effective way possible. Londsdale provides from there a series of procedures to follow, in order to learn any language in 6 month, regardless of talents. 

Lonsdale talks about immersion in another countries culture being one of the crucial factors into learning a language. But he also asks, what is true immersion? We can see just in Paris, countless people that after years of being in France haven’t learned the language. So why does this happen? What is truly behind learning a language. 

Lonsdale talks about 5 principles: 

1 – Relevancy: Are the things you learn relevant to you? If you are learning just by reading grammar, your mind won’t remain motivated. Relevance will help our brain to keep motivated. A new language implies learning countless variables and combinations, it’s essential to find what can keep us motivated, be it a particular subject, or even a dream we want to concrete. 

2- Communicate: Lansdale talks about using immediately the language we learned, even if we just started. Actually trying to send a message is what puts our brain into function. Our brain remembers names more easily because the effort of trying to say something emulates the effort we did as we were kids learning our mother tongue.

3- Comprehensive impute: 1000 words imply an 85% of words used in a language. 3000 are a 95%.  This tells us it’s much more important to understand a message than learning by memory countless words.

4- Talk: Forty-three muscles are used for talking. And many are used more in one language than another. Talking will get you used to it and also will help to memorize words.

5- Positive Psychological state: Chris talks to us about this being the most important attribute. When we are learning, being relaxed puts the brain in a curious state. It’s no wonder that play is the natural way of learning of most mammals. 

These principles are part of what molds our English Program. We want to provide to our travelers a meaningful experience, that will allow them to construct the foundations to the most effective way of learning a language and it's surrounding culture. These foundations are provided by teaching language tools during the morning, and providing a set of activities for the student to choose from at the afternoon, tours that will allow him to use the language in matters that interest him, living the nightlife with local people putting into motion his communication skills, visiting the artistic side of the city he desires to see.

 As Lansdale said, Relevancy and Positive Psychological state are truly important, and doing the activities you desire, in a new challenging new environment, will provide you motivation during, and for years to come. Going to a country to follow a program isn’t enough. Immersion implies study, but as well a positive adventure.

We got the Study vacations for you!