They say you know you're starting to master a new language when you start to think in that language. I started learning Spanish by audiobooks during my 2-hour commutes, and after the first week (after which I assumed I'd be fluent), I tried to figure out what language I think in. My conclusion: I don't think in any language. I think based on emotion and the purest and humblest form of the id. I am more of an instinctual robot than a thoughtful intellectual expressing my curiosity in the tongues of Shakespearean sonnets. My stomach grumbles, I look around for a red-haired girl on a sign telling me that I can get a double-stack hamburger for a buck. No English necessary. No thinking at all, in fact. March 14, 2007
I Think in Tongues
They say you know you're starting to master a new language when you start to think in that language. I started learning Spanish by audiobooks during my 2-hour commutes, and after the first week (after which I assumed I'd be fluent), I tried to figure out what language I think in. My conclusion: I don't think in any language. I think based on emotion and the purest and humblest form of the id. I am more of an instinctual robot than a thoughtful intellectual expressing my curiosity in the tongues of Shakespearean sonnets. My stomach grumbles, I look around for a red-haired girl on a sign telling me that I can get a double-stack hamburger for a buck. No English necessary. No thinking at all, in fact.