This new study on the personalities of bilingual people, however, has me convinced that I should give a second language another try.
Researchers David Luna from Baruch College, New York, US, and Torsten Ringberg and Laura Peracchio from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, US, found that women classified themselves and others as more assertive when they spoke Spanish than when they spoke English.
“In the Spanish-language sessions, informants perceived females as more self-sufficient and extroverted,” they say.
For example, one person saw the main character in the Spanish version of a commercial as a risk-taking, independent woman, but as hopeless, lonely, and confused in the English version.
Unfortunately, the article doesn’t go in to a great deal of detail on how and why the personality change happens, but I have a few theories.
How language can change your personality
I think there are two probable reasons for how language can cause this personality change to occur:
- I’m guessing that the change has something to do with the environment you learn the language in and the environment you use the language in. For example, in the study the researchers showed that Spanish women were assertive when they spoke Spanish. So where would they be speaking Spanish the most? At home probably, where they probably have family that they have to be assertive with.
- Another possibility is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis speculates that language influences how we understand and behave in the world around us. So language is like a lens that filters our experiences with the world. What this means is that someone who speaks Japanese will interact with and see the world differently than someone who speaks English. (I should mention that while most researchers accept that language does have some influence on how we see the world and interact with it, it is not clear how powerful that influence is)
So take French as an example. The way the French language is structured (I’ve been told) allows for much more intricate and nuanced conversation to take place. So a person that speaks both English and French might be more conversational, more outgoing, or more extroverted while speaking French.
What language would you learn?
I think I may take up French. It’s the other official language here in Canada, it’s one of the official languages of the UN, and the conversational image really appeals to me.
Further Reading:
-How Switching Language can Change your Personality at New Scientist
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Wow. Fascinating stuff… although I similarly have to say that I’m not that surprised. As an English, French and Spanish speaker I do notice that I find it easier to be direct, even blunt with people in Spanish where in the same situation in English I might sugar-coat or shy away from expressing what I mean. Although, I might add that I wonder whether environmental factors are also at work with this. It is more acceptable to behave in a certain way in Spanish society and not in English. For example, tactile greetings and asking direct, slightly personal questions about one’s family is acceptable in Spain, where it may appear too forward or nosy in the UK. Similarly, a British greeting may seem cold and dismissive to a Spaniard where it would be a polite convention in the UK. It all makes for an interesting study - I look forward to reading more about it.
That’s an excellent point about the culture behind the language Zoey.
I didn’t think about that but culture certainly has a big influence on how language develops and how we use language. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were even subtle differences in the language use of people who speak the same language but are from different countries, like the UK and Australia for instance.
This and the article from New Scientist explained a phenomenon that I’ve experienced with my French girlfriend. I have noticed over the past four years that she is a strikingly different person in French and English. In English, she seems insecure and shy, but in French she is happy, confident, outgoing, witty, and even a little flirty. She was raised by her French mother, but has an American father, went to college in the U.S., and has lived here for 18 years, so it’s not about her fluency. There’s just something different that happens when she speaks French…