Do we think differently in different languages?

That video is really interesting ! I was speaking with my father about switching languages between Portuguese and french and he told me that his dream were in french when he was in France but switched to Portuguese back to his hometown ! The human brain is amazing and do such phenomenal things !

I suppose that our thoughts are the same in all the languages.
We believe that our way of thinking is different, because mostly we can't express what we want or we can't describe something.

That's probably happens either because of the vocabulary loss, or because of the selfconfidence loss. Maybe it's that we aren't used to speak another language.

In our maternal language we realise a thought process from A to B when we talk and maybe in another language we make A -> C -> B, in order to arrive in the same result. That doesn't mean that we think differently but that we use another "algorithm".

Sometimes we use expressions in other languages that we aren't familiar with, in order to be adapted in some situations. Some worlds and some expressions have different meanings in each language and I agree that a language is connected whith its culture.

What do you think John?

Very interesting video, thank you John for sharing

I agree with Babis, I thinks that we are thinking in same way in all the languages.
But, sometimes, we are not able to express our thoughts in English for example like to express it in our native language.

I think that's happens because of the cultural differences. Indeed, a language is the expression of a culture and it's really related. I noticed that in every language, there are always one word which has different meanings and it depends of the sentence, the context and even the tone of voice. And I think that even you are good and you speak well a language you can not manage all of them, so that's why you can't express you thoughts like a native speaker.
Also, when you are not a native speaker, you are looking for substitutable words in your sentences if you can't express your idea like it's in your mind.

Interesting topic!
I do agree with Babis and Farah, our thoughts are the same in all the languages.

But, there's one thing I've Always wondered about: a foreigner who has lived in France for many years, in which language does he think? Does he think in his native language or in French?

John, Farah, tell me!

Hi everyone,
My opinion actually differs from everyone else's. I think differently in English that I do in French. I also react differently. I feel like I'm way more inclusive in English and that I'm more judgemental in French. I've read a study about how our first thought of reaction to something is about the way we were taught it for a long time and our second reaction is the one we're teaching ourselves. And I often criticize someone in French and have this immediate second thought coming to me in English saying to be kinder and that being that judgy is not ok... So, for example, an internal conversation with myself will be:
- Olala, sa tenue est super vulgaire
- Wait, girl you can't think this way, she wears whatever she wants, if being this way empowers her then you should support her decision/ it's none of your business.

So I'm kind of always in this weird annoying conversation with myself where the new values I've learned about tolerance and not being a judgy bitch are in English. Versus my bad habits, I'm trying to get rid of are learned in French. (of course, I have great other values that come to me in French, this conversation I get in two languages is 90% of the time about judging others/myself).

Anyway, I've been reading this book about languages (can't remember the title sorryyyy) and it was explaining how the way a language is created influences our culture (and / or the opposite).
So for example, german is like a puzzle where everything has to be at the right place to make sense, it has a very specific construction that makes german people be more organized/ downed to earth.

And there are words and expressions that we can use in a language and don't really have a perfect translation, so it influences the way we think. People make fun of my frenchglish but sometimes, the words just can't be translated to express perfectly the way I feel.

So I think that there are many factors that influence the way we think such as the mood we're in, but to me, the language itself is one of them. And I don't know how to really explain it but I can feel it in the way I think both in French and in English (and I don't think that lack of vocabulary is related)

The simple idea that in French you need to segregate people into "tu" and "vous" whilst in English we are all "you" tells me that a language must surely affect the way we think.

Other examples like a larger choice of word for the same / a similar thing infers the same (at least to me). I love that English has so many more words for practically the same thing than French. The choice of our word for that adds innuendo to our meaning. I marvel at the thought that some scandinavians have over 40 words for "snow" and the Samis have 180. Though amazingly the Scots supposedly have 421.

I would like confirm the fact that Scandinavians people have 40 words for speak about snow ^^ it’s true John !!! During my Erasmus, I choose Estonian language and culture class, and Lecturer told us this, they have a different one for each “kind” “aspect” of snow (in Estonian, the most common word for snow it’s “lumi”)

Every language has its own specialties and are not use in the same way. English for me is more expressive (American more than English). Americans use a lot of superlatives for example, that it’s not the case in French. And I noticed that since my erasmus which made that I spoke a lot English, there are certain thoughts, subjects which I think systematically in English because English is more favorable to convey the emotion that I wish to convey than other language. And at the same time I find that in English, there is not necessarily all the nuances that the French language has (well it's also because I speak French better than English ^^)

However, I think that we think the same from one language to another and that what influences the thought may be more related to where we are (as in the case of Léa's father, who dreams in Protugais when he is there and dreams in French when he is in France). I think the brain adapts to where it lives, just to survive. And so we adapt our thinking according to our environment. In Estonia, people are very calm, patient and respectful in France! I realized it when I came back to France and I started to see the incivilities just the door of the airport crossed and my way of thinking became more aggressive than when I was in Estonia.
As in the United States, people are extremely expressive for anything and everything, a person we have just met can talk to us in such a way that we feel like a friend long-time and we become more expressive.

For having made several countries one after the other, we can see very well the different ways of thinking

Hello everyone!!!!!!!!!!

HAAHAHHHH OMG I think this is the question I heard the most ! when you dream or think, you do it in French or Albanian??????
I have no idea, guys! I don't think we can guess that! I speak more French than Albanian so maybe I think more in French because it is the language I use most right now in my life! Because I practice more French , now it's easy to think in French but I don't even know in which language I think or dream! HAhahahahah but actually it's a funny question for me!!

And wow now that I use a lot of English, "you" for everyone is so good! It's so good not to make a distinction between people!!

And you know what happened to me last week. I sent an e-mail to a teacher, she was a student at Cepe too few years ago and I didn't want to call her "Bonjour Madame" at the beginning of the letter so I put "Bonjour Sofia" and I read the e-mail to Amélie and some girls and they had this reaction "Diana wtf you say that, did you call her with her name?" Come on, I'd rather make a personalized email than write "hello Mrs. Gashi" or anything else! During my internship, I replaced a colleague for 3 weeks and her clients sent me "Bonjour Diana" and they didn't know I was an intern, nothing and I appreciated this distinction because I felt she knew me and she was more polite than just saying "Hello Mrs Gashi" grrrrrrr so impersonal!

SO please write personal mail and stop with all this french shitty clichés and change somethings !!!

Of all the feedback emails I received for my internship search, I received all the personalized emails and none of those generic rejection emails that just makes you want to stop looking for internships! France really needs to evolve in a good direction and seriously stop all this shitty codes !

Have a nice day all of you guys

Of course ! 
I think differently in different languages .
When i am talking italian i have the impression of being more creative and having a lot more of ideas that comes fluently . But suddenly when i change the language things changes .
Infact that's why when i have to do works in french or english i always try to think in italian and then translate .

But , as Diana said ,what is weird is that sometimes ( when you are able to speak different language ) when you think you don't know which language you are using to speak with your brain hahah. it's like if you use another language to speak with your inner side hahah ok i stop it !