Speaking multiple languages
I was intrigued by Naval’s tweet today:
I grew up in Italy, when I was 30 I left my country to go work for Amazon Web Services in Luxembourg, then Singapore, then San Francisco. I am now 40, and it is fair to say that in the last 10 years I mostly spoke in English.
I am a native speaker in Italian, and I consider myself really fluent in English (although I still have a slight accent, and I still don’t have the same rich vocabulary that Naval has). I also speak some Spanish, which is quite similar to Italian.
I can answer Naval’s question with one example: I speak so often in English that sometimes, when I speak Italian, I “construct” sentences the way I would in English, which is wrong. The main difference is in how subject, predicate, complement are ordered.
This means that my mind is mostly switched in the English “construction” mode. In other words, I am losing my Italian language ability. I need 3–4 full days in Italy to switch back to that mode.
A good metaphor is the following: your brain has RAM (fast access memory), and can’t efficiently keep the constructs of multiple languages at once. It will favor the language you use most often. If your brain needs to switch, it will access your slower memory (your hard disk) to retrieve different constructs.
I also don’t believe that my current dominant language (English) is my identity. This has more to do with your culture, than strictly with your language.
For example, I am now so used to an “Anglo-Saxon” way of working (e.g. structured meetings, with a proper agenda) that when I deal with Italians, I tend to appear “foreign” because I don’t follow the usual chaos (no specific agenda, a lot of wandering around). At the same time, I am aware of different ways to approach business conversations (Chinese, Indian, Mediterranean, Anglo-Saxon, etc.) and therefore I try to adapt when I can, so I don’t put the other party in an uncomfortable situation.
This goes back to a “theory” I have about cultural zones: for example, the whole Mediterranean area, plus most of South America, plus most of Mexico and central America, belong to a very similar cultural zone, DESPITE the language spoken can be “romance” (Spanish, Portuguese, French) or more “slavic” (Dutch).
Last word for Naval: it would be amazing for you to learn another language fluently (if you already don’t speak one). I feel it’s one of the richest, most satisfying skills you can have. If you want to learn Italian, I’m happy to help (we both live in San Francisco).
