How does being multilingual affect a person’s personality?
There are 7 billion people in the world, and each person is different from others because people have different personalities.
What is Personality?
Personality is the type of person you are which is shown by the way you behave, feel, and think. Personality is unique and it is affected by Nature, Nurture, and Human Diversity.
People have different personalities when they talk to friends, teachers, coworkers, or family members. Moreover, people also behave differently with different people, even though they speak in the same language.
Same thing happens to the Multilinguals!
Multilingual means a person who is able to communicate in more than two languages. Nowadays, people tend to become multilingual more than before as today world is already considered to be international. From interviewing a bilingual person, the interviewee stated that he becomes gentler when he speaks Russian, yet he is harsher when speaking English. It means that people who are able to speak more than one language might have different manners according to the languages which they can speak.
It is impossible for people to absorb a culture without directly accessing its language.
This shows that there is a connection between language and culture in which people who are interacting with another language have to interact with the culture of that language as well.
LANGUAGE VS PERSONALITY
“Learn a new language and get a new soul.”
This Czech proverb means that people will have different personality when they learn new language. This proverb could be one of the proofs to confirm that being multilingual has an impact on human behaviour. Another supporting fact is from Baruch College Professor, David Luna and his colleagues. They asked a woman student of theirs who is able to speak English and Spanish to interpret the women picture advertisement in English language first, then in Spanish language six months later. They found that she interpreted the women in the ads as more old-fashioned and family-oriented in English. On the other hand, the women in the ads is more independent and extrovert in Spanish.
To be able to speak another language generally makes the brain more flexible. The brain has to switch from one language to another when people speak many languages, so does the behaviour and personality. The context that people learnt in the language and the deep-rooted culture which comes along with the language are the reasons why the multilingual has different personalities. Besides, a study by Harris and colleagues found out that people tend to swear more in their first language compared to a fluent second language. This shows that the emotional response in people’s native language is stronger than in the languages that are acquired later. For instance, the Greek participant mentioned that he speaks more swiftly in a kind of rude way, with an anxiety tone when he speak in Greek, but in English, his speech become very polite, with a relaxed tone.
Women revealed themselves as strong and independent when speaking French, but they were more patient and well-mannered when speaking Portuguese. Another example is from Jennifer Walker, she mentioned that when she speaks English she is expressive, mature, and accurate. However, she is quiet, childlike, and extremely polite when she speaks in Hungarian. Moreover, when she speaks in Spanish she is loud, confident, and flirty. Refer from her words, her completely different personalities while speaking three different languages can be the good confirmation that the multilinguals’ personality is switched when they speak different languages.
There are many advantages of being multilingual beyond just being able to communicate with different people.
The cultural aspects that are deeply-rooted in language have significant impacts on the personalities of multilinguals because the behaviour of those who speak several languages changes according to the language they use. Furthermore, the above facts presented that most of the multilinguals have different personality when speaking different language because they need to learn the culture of each language in order to learn the language.
CONCLUSION
When people learn a new language, they are not only learning its alphabets, words, and grammar. Apparently, people have to also learn about the behaviour and specific society’s customs because it is important to refer to the language’s culture as language is very ingrained in the culture.
It is essential to discover different sides of your personality.
You will find the emotional perspectives of yourself, and you will also understand your passions and beliefs. Additionally, being able to speak several languages allows you to pursue the complex variations of people in both intellectually and emotionally, and culture as well. Finally, the multilinguals have to be aware of their different personalities to be able to control their expressions and live happily in the society.
