Whether you've noticed it or not, research suggests yes, our personalities can shift depending on the language we are speaking. Your attitude to a language and the cultural values you place on it play a part in how you label your personality when speaking that language, say experts at
Research suggests that we do undergo a personality change, along with a re-prioritization of our values when we speak different languages. In Do Bilinguals have Two Personalities by Ramirez-Ezparzal et.al (2), bilingual Mexican-Americans completed a Big Five Personality Test in both English and Spanish.
Found people thought differently depending language used
They say that many speakers have entirely different personalities in each of the languages they speak. Previously research has even found those who are bilingual even see colours differently.
This is because the language itself primes the bilinguals' culture-specific values, attitudes, and memories, which in turn affect that behavior (e.g., their responses to a questionnaire).
Language is sure to affect the way you interpret and perceive things. Your interpretation and perception affect your thoughts and feelings. Your thoughts and feelings affect your personality. Therefore, it's safe to say that your personality does change when you speak in a different language.
Language does not completely determine our thoughts—our thoughts are far too flexible for that—but habitual uses of language can influence our habit of thought and action. For instance, some linguistic practice seems to be associated even with cultural values and social institution. Pronoun drop is the case in point.
They become more impulsive, laidback or even more rational depending on whether they're speaking Spanish or Mandarin. A recent study carried out by psychologists at the University of Chicago found that polyglots are more likely to make rational decisions when they think through a problem in their second language. Why?
Bilingual people enjoy advantages: they have enriched cognitive control, it's likely that they have improved metalinguistic awareness, as well as better memory, visual-spatial skills and even creativity.
“When your brain processes language, it's not one place in the brain that processes language,” Marian says. “It's a network that's spread across all areas of the brain.” Because of that, bilingual brains have more pathways connecting different words, concepts and memories across different languages.
Bilingual people have more of these neurons and dendrites compared to people who speak only one language. This means that their grey matter is denser. Bilingualism also has an impact on white matter – that is, a system of nerve fibres which connect all four lobes of the brain.
New research suggests that speaking a second language doesn't affect overall intelligence, upending the conventional wisdom. Perfect fluency in a second language can make someone seem so worldly and intelligent.
In the early nineteen fifties, researchers found that people scored lower on intelligence tests if they spoke more than one language. Research in the sixties found the opposite. Bilingual people scored higher than monolinguals, people who speak only one language.
Forty-two percent said that their language attraction is due to them finding other cultures interesting, while 23 percent say that they like the mystery of a foreign language. For an additional 20 percent, being able to talk about things like love in different languages served as a sign of intelligence.
More young people are bilingual than any other age group, as almost a quarter of those aged 16-24 say they can speak two languages fluently (24.5%). Those aged 35-44 are the second most likely to be able to speak two languages, as 18.5% of people in this age category say they are bilingual.
Although bilingual people are not necessarily “smarter” or more intelligent than monolingual people, they do have a stronger executive function which results in a better ability to switch between tasks, they also have more efficient monitoring systems and a heightened cognitive ability.
As was seen with older children, both trilinguals and bilinguals exhibited better performance than monolinguals, but trilinguals did not outperform bilinguals.
Bilingual speakers have two minds in one body, new research has revealed. Speaking two languages literally changes the way we see the world, and bilingual speakers think differently to those who only use their native tongue.
Bilingualism strengthens cognitive abilities - bilingual people tend to be more creative and flexible. They can be more open-minded, and they also find it easier to focus on a variety of tasks simultaneously.
A study conducted at the University of Granada and the University of York in Toronto, Canada, has revealed that bilingual children develop a better working memory -which holds, processes and updates information over short periods of time- than monolingual children.
The main reason suggested for bilinguals' advantage is their need to process and manage the two languages, which are simultaneously activated whenever one of the languages is used [8,9,10,11]. This simultaneous activation requires a higher working memory (WM) capacity.
In the increasingly globalized and interconnected world, being able to communicate in more than one language is a highly marketable skill that often commands a higher salary. In fact, research shows that those who are bilingual or multilingual can earn 5%-20% more per hour than those who aren't.
The brain has to switch from one language to another when people speak many languages, so does the behaviour and personality. The context that people learnt in the language and the deep-rooted culture which comes along with the language are the reasons why the multilingual has different personalities.
There have been very few studies on bilingualism and multilingualism and how they affect dreams. These are small studies, but they certainly find that people who speak any second language, even without good proficiency, at least occasionally dream in the second language.
Multilinguals can express emotions, thoughts, and feelings in multiple languages. They talk and behave differently according to the language they are using. They will be different with their English-speaking friends than with their French-speaking friends.