Comments on: Thinking And Dreaming In Japanese

By: Tora.Silver

Tora.Silver — Wed, 28 Aug 2013 20:39:00 +0000

How has a year gone by without anybody replying to this…
…artwork.

By: MavsWorld

MavsWorld — Sun, 25 Aug 2013 20:25:00 +0000

Generally it’s agreed that your language doesn’t have an affect on how you think, unless you have to phrase a thought. For example, it’s been found that people from countries which construct future and present verbs in the same way, e.g. Japanese and German, save more, are less likely to smoke, etc. This is thought to be because they are less easily able to disconnect future from present. The study even controlled for cultural values by using bilingual countries, and then pairing people on wealth, educational level, etc. Other examples include problems with remembering colours you do not have words for in your language, and languages with greater use of the passive tense blaming people less.

By: Nat Wel

Nat Wel — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 20:48:00 +0000

You’re right, you only need it to speak to other Japanese people.

By: ピチ

ピチ — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 08:54:00 +0000

I think it’s more of when you’re talking to yourself…

Sometimes when I’m thinking things through in my mind, or talking to myself,
instead of being like “it’d be nice to see so-and-so again”, I think to myself in Japanese instead,
「また会えるといいわねぇ」 or something like that…
I feel like thinking in another language, or whichever you’re trying to learn (which would actually be Spanish instead of Japanese, for me) shows that you’re more use to/comfortable a language that your thoughts when speaking to yourself are automatically in a language that isn’t your native.

Anyway, I think what shows your ‘becoming more fluent’ of a language is when you start to connect emotions to the words that are of that language.

If I said in English”OMG! Thank you, I’m so happy!!” you’d know I was happy, and you’d get a good feeling.Even if you understood that’s what they were saying in Japanese, hearing someone say”uwaa arigatou! ureshii!” probably doesn’t give you the same feeling as hearing it in English,because even though you understand them, the word “ureshii” hasn’t been taught to give you a feeling.

So when you start ‘feeling words’ so to speak, I think that makes your fluency level go up more so than thinking to yourself in another language, or dreaming in it.

I hope what I’m saying makes sense, it’s 4:00 here and I’ve not slept yet (@_@)

By: Sugarbear110

Sugarbear110 — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 02:36:00 +0000

I tend to talk to myself in my head and have conversations with myself in my head so i thought it was quite weird when i read that when you go to get a glass of water you don’t talk about it or say it in your mind…(I do). i’ve been studying japanese flash cards and trying to name something in japanese every chance i get so whenever i see my dog or i see my bookshelf i automatically think to myself “…inu…” or “…hon…” as if I’m constantly doing drills in my head….

By: Allyson Larimer

Allyson Larimer — Thu, 31 May 2012 14:28:00 +0000

When I was really early in my Japanese studies I forced myself to change my inner monologue to Japanese. When I was just sitting around the house I would say what I was thinking out loud in Japanese. It forced me to internalize the language process, gave me a reason to use it, and also made it easier when I wanted to talk about things later (like if you say “I’m thirsty, I’m going to go get a drink” to your self it makes it easier to tell someone “I was thirsty so I went to get a drink and there was a spider in the bottom of the glass” or something)

However, I will caution anyone against slipping into Japanese in everyday conversation. I work as a simultaneous interpreter so its critical for me that I don’t get the two languages mixed up. I think its important for learners as well because you need to separate the two languages but be able to use them with the same fluidity. Once you get to a certain level, you shouldn’t have to “try” to put together sentences, they should flow naturally. I think “thinking” in Japanese helps with that.