Photo of Malaika Millions, "a beguiling, vitriolic vixen," chosen because she appears to be clearly communicating her contentment. Source: In the House Festival 2007
I like this post by Jina Moore, a journalist based in Africa, about how she sounds different when she speaks different languages.
It’s almost like that now in Kinyarwanda, where my vocabulary is more limited and so the words I know pop out, like the accented notes in a Hindemith counterpoint, and I can use them to anchor myself in the melody and hum along with the tune. And when my own counterpoint fails in my Kinyarwanda conversation with the waitress, we can plaster up the rhythmic holes in French.
Don’t hire me as an interpreter in these tongues, or for the love of God, between them. But after three months on the road, working in or passing through five countries and eight languages, it’s comforting to cozy up in familiar sounds, to feel at home in these grammars, at least, and to be close enough to get some meaning but far enough, still, to hear the song.
I can’t comment on the sound of the languages she mentions (except for French, which I can understand if I understand the context and know the people involved…) but I can identify with her desire to “plaster up the rhythmic holes” and “cozy up in familiar sounds.”
Here in corporate China, the bulk of the conversation carries on in Chinese, with the keywords in English: “idea,” “concept,” “marketing,” “campaign,” “fashion,” and so on. Sometimes the English extends to words I don’t know, like “cosplay” (costume + play) and “SOHO” (individual work at home entrepreneur/freelancer). These keywords help me plaster up the giant holes in my Chinese vocabulary, even though sometimes I need an explanation in Chinese to explain an idea in the local version of English.
Also, my ideas sound different in different languages. In English, I tend to discount my sentences with “maybe” and “how about” and “if…” In Spanish, I sound more flirtatious. In Chinese, I sound like a kid who speaks in simple sentences and adult jargon, maybe ten years old. I don’t speak Portuguese well or often enough to really have a style.
How do you sound when you speak different languages? Is this a function of the way the words sound, or the personality you take on? I want to hear YOUR stories…
2 Responses to Found in Translation: How does your personality change when you speak different languages?
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I'm Leslie and I connect entrepreneurs in Chile, China, California, and beyond — especially through translation, training, and trade. More about me.
Yep, I’m different when I speak Spanish. I don’t have the same long history with the language as I do in English, so while trying to develop a proper accent during the first semesters of study, I also found myself taking on other aspects of personality while speaking Spanish: a more masculine body language, a more assertive diction (not as many qualifications or tentative statements). The thing is, when speaking Spanish, I’m trying to model the demeanors and attitudes of certain people I’ve picked as role models – friends from school, or Colombian cousins of mine, in order to have my speech sound as native as possible. The decision processes that lead to word choice come out of a person’s inner context, and I just have less inner context in Spanish than in English. The Spanish speaker in me was only “born” when I was already 19. Since I’m at the level of fluency where I think in Spanish while speaking in Spanish, the basis that I have to generate language with is more about modelling others’ speech than inventing my own (probably the same process as what a child in elementary school does in any language).
The way the words sound also counts for something, though. At the broadest level, a language in general has certain contours and styles – obviously, the gymnastic fleshiness of pronunciation in French is different from the loud open musicality of Italian, and the staccato suaveness of Spanish is different from the marble-mouthed animation of American English. When I’m speaking Spanish, with so many words that end in “o” and “a”, when I’m trying to produce those sharp “r” and “t” sounds, it certainly does influence everything else about me; it becomes a sort of feedback loop, connected with with the “personality modelling” I mentioned before.
Querido Michael,
I’ve heard you speak Spanish, and you describe it so well! I just read your blog for the first time in ages. I like the Chile stories and China comments
I hope you had an amazing time in Chile! Let’s Skype soon to catch up.
xoxo
leslie