# National characteristics



## Amityville

Quote from online news:
"Psychologists have discovered that people take on the characteristics of foreign nationals when they switch into their language.
The personality changes, however, run deeper than a desire to gesticulate wildly when talking in Italian or to plunge into gloom when speaking Russian. According to research, using different languages alters basic characteristic traits such as extroversion and neuroticism."

Apologies to jolly Russians and inhibited Italians. 
I don't think I agree with this, any characteristics a person takes on along with the language are superficial ones, aren't they ? And which nation is known for its neuroticism ?

There wasn't much more than that in the article, so perhaps it's a bit of nothing.


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## jess oh seven

hahaha 
i think i gesticulate more (although i do a lot in English anyway) and sound very passionate about things which don't usually invoke passion when i'm speaking in Spanish.  but i don't think i sound like i'm arguing intensely when i'm talking to someone about the weather or something like Spaniards i've met seem to do!!! haha.


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## Amityville

Yes, that's true, jo7, I also get more intense - and sometimes the intensity has more to do with the language than the subject, funny really, so open to misinterpretation.


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## chica11

I don't think I change to much of my personality when I am speaking Spanish than when I am speaking English.  I speak passionately and intensely no matter what language (unless the subject I am talking about isn't that interesting). Because that's just me.  However, I have to say that when you go and live in a foreign country, after awhile I think you start acting, speaking and dressing more like the locals but that's because you are living there.  It happened to me when I lived in Costa Rica, Mexico and England.


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## Kelly B

I don't think it's true for me, but my voice goes up half an octave when I speak French. What's with that?


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## ILT

My brother-in-law first noticed it when his daughter switched between English and Spanish when she was only 2!, and I checked out myself and yes, I do switch too ; however, my son doesn't!  His tone does not change.


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## elroy

I don't agree.  I pick up expressions, change my tone of voice perhaps - but that all has to do with the LANGUAGE itself ... not with my personality.


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## Artrella

I don't agree with that theory.  Maybe if you live in some other country you will pick up the manners of the people living there, not only because the language change but because after living in some place you change your manners according to what surrounds you.  In my case, living in the same place, when I change from Spanish to English or to Italian or German my gestures are the same, but my voice changes. I've noticed this change of voice with my English teachers, we used to talk only in English and when they spoke Spanish it was like meeting this person for the first time!


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## solecito

*Yes! Yes!* I've noticed that too, my voice changes to a deeper tone when speak english I might even sound sexy, but in my native spanish I have a nasal voice, compared to "The Nanny's" voice, but my son who also speaks both languages ( his first language was, well,, both),, seems to stay the same. Also our personalities stay the same, no change there. Why do we change our voice when speaking a different language?


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## chica11

Compared to the romance languages, English is pretty flat and boring. Well don't yell at me for saying that, I am from the USA and I have to say that may not be true for all accents in the English language. But generally English is all flat, we don't have as many accents or inflections as the romance languages. Maybe that's why we sound different when we switch between them.


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## cuchuflete

Chica11 obviously doesn't listen to sports talk radio programs!

Let's try a test of this theory:  A non-native speaker of AE should, if the theory holds,
acquire a preference for weak coffee, large SUV's, to be driven only on paved roads.  The language student will acquire an interest in consumately boring things like NASCAR races, junk 'food', and television.   

Conversely, when a native speaker of AE speaks Spanish, they should become more animated, passionate, and interested in fútbol.

I think the theory is bogus.

cheers,
Cuchu


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## joensuu

I don't think the personnality changes with the language but i think the language itself show the mean personnality of the personns. 
I will try to explain... I speak the same way in french and english and i'm really not able to change this way to speak. When i try to speak Finnish, it's excately the same. The stranger in this language is the lack of modulations. They speak in the same ton without cutting after each word. And this stay for most of the Finn's in most of the languages. This non-modulation correspond well to the quiert and unexpressif personnality i often meet in Finland.


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## Cath.S.

Kelly B said:
			
		

> I don't think it's true for me, but my voice goes up half an octave when I speak French. What's with that?


Kelly, do you know what's truly amazing?
The same thing happens to me whenever I speak English!


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## chica11

Cuchuflete, I'm sure you've taken Spanish phonetics before and so you know that for example spanish has stable vowel sounds while English does not-Schwas.  I think that the sports people are animated and excited when they speak but that doesn't make English "phonetically speaking" a language with many inflections and afterall we don't carry any tildes diacríticos.


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## jmx

jess oh seven said:
			
		

> i think i gesticulate more (although i do a lot in English anyway) and sound very passionate about things which don't usually invoke passion when i'm speaking in Spanish.





			
				amityville said:
			
		

> Yes, that's true, jo7, I also get more intense - and sometimes the intensity has more to do with the language than the subject, funny really, so open to misinterpretation.


Could it be this the explanation ? When you're speaking a foreign language, your lack of proficiency makes you stop more often, in search of a word or expression, and your intensity is a way to tell the other people in the conversation : _don't interrupt me ! I'm not done yet !_


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## Amityville

egueule said:
			
		

> Kelly, do you know what's truly amazing?
> The same thing happens to me whenever I speak English!


 
An English french-speaking friend of mine goes up in French, too, and to me sounds much more French because of it So how come you go up in English, egueule, puzzling. 
I sincerely think my French-soundingness would improve if I put my voice up a bit, but it hasnt happened naturally and if I went falsetto overnight, people might laugh.


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## lsp

egueule said:
			
		

> Kelly, do you know what's truly amazing?
> The same thing happens to me whenever I speak English!


Happens to me in Italian!


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## ILT

I do agree that due to the specifics of each language my tone of voice changes, and that may make my personality change on the surface, but I'm still the same.

However, I will seem quieter and calmer when I speak in English, while in Spanish it is really easy for me go up and seem open and louder without even noticing it!

ILT


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## QUIJOTE

Well in my case I can express somethings better in english than in spanish it is close though , but I have to concede that growing up in a Hispanic family in NY and now because of my job I live in Germany for about 10yrs now, I can definitely say there has been a character change somewhere down the line, especially when the wife is from Spain somethings will surely start to get entangled.


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## Amityville

How have you changed then, Quijote ? Just since moving to Germany for starters.


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## Phryne

Is it true? Well, I’m not quite sure if I speak English and Spanish in a different fashion; however, I do behave differently since I've moved into the US. I've realized that every time I visit my family I'm not as loud and emotional as I used to be. I've also noticed that I became a lot more polite. My friends are surprised on how many times I say "gracias" or "por favor" as opposed to Argentines, who hardly ever say anything. I'm not saying that Argies are impolite people, but we are definitely much more honest with our opinions, even if it offends somebody.  We don't care that much about political correctness. We say what we have to say. 

saludos


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## panjandrum

I have a theory.
...that those of us who are most remote from the linguistic and accent centre of our language are also most likely to modify our own use of language and accent to match the context we find ourselves in.

Alternatively, the more atypical our normal speech, the more likely we are to seek to adapt to the context.

So, home counties english people will persist in their bizarre speech wherever they are - indifferent to the differing accents around them.
But we paddies will readily and unconsciously convert to London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Dublin, Boston, Aukland, Sydney, Toronto - whatever is appropriate to improve the chances of our being understood.

The scientific basis for this is my family's amused observation of my telephone voice 

So, when on holiday in Piedmont, I communicate effectively by speaking English with an Italian accent


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## Amityville

Hi Panja, you mean if you are used to being thought an oddity you are less inhibited about mixing in a foreign place. If so, I agree absolutely.
Speaking English with an Italian/French/other accent I have seen in action, and have seen that it works. If you are able to carry it off, I guess you make yourself more accessible, obviating the native's panic reflex.


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## timpeac

Speaking a foreign language with any level of proficiency involves a certain level of acting. I imagine that people whose tone changes, or other basic part of their expression changes, have in some way based their early learning of the language on some (native?) with those characteristics.

Learning to speak a foreign language, and speak it well (eg good accent etc) for many people is in a certain way a textbook exercise. Unless you live in the country for a long while and are influenced by a huge range of natives, you are probably aware of what a "good" accent consists of, and have had reasonable exposure to a number of natives. I imagine that at some point we start "acting" the foreign accent, and over time it becomes instinctive to speak it that way (for example I would hope that I would now unthinkingly make the distinction between French u/ou or Spanish s/c (ceceante), or at least make the distinction as often and as easily as I would in spelling). But I only learnt to do that by making a huge effort in that respect in the early days.

Do an impression to yourself in your native language - of a type of person not a specific one, eg a mafioso or a nun or a boxer or a policeman or a royal etc - is your tone and pitch the same as your normal voice? I would guess not.

Just a theory!


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## panjandrum

Well I wouldn't have said "thought an oddity" 
But as one with a "minority" accent in BE terms, I am used to hearing and understanding not-my accents, and used to adapting so that others understand me.  Those with a more-or-less standard BE accent will not have that competence 

I also think there is something inherently musical involved.  This has been mentioned by others - who change pitch depending on language!  

My wife, who has studied Italian for some years but is not especially musical (careful understatement here) has a lot more difficulty understanding Italian natives than I do - having studied Latin for four years but also being a multi-lingual choral singer.


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## QUIJOTE

Amityville said:
			
		

> How have you changed then, Quijote ? Just since moving to Germany for starters.


 
Well for starters I like wine now more than ten years ago  , no seriously, I have absorved many of my wife customs and sayings, last may, we went to NY and the fam was saying I acted different, I hadn't noticed but they could tell.


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## meili

egueule said:
			
		

> Kelly, do you know what's truly amazing?
> The same thing happens to me whenever I speak English!


 
Happens to me when I speak in AE, too! The same goes with my friends. Sounds weird actually.  But when I speak in Spanish, basically, I feel like I am singing.

I also believe that people do not change their personality by just speaking the language. Perhaps, as with experience, I just try to mimick the intonation and pace - but not the change in persona. 

And complete immersion to the community where that language is spoken would somewhat be a factor to this change - but I still think that it will require years (and you will change or adapt the traits unconsciously, one way or the other) - and your desire to be changed.


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## Outsider

Each language has its specific intonation. Even regional dialects within languages are 'sung' with different melodies. It's difficult to explain, but it's one of the things that make you have a strong/weak grasp on a language.


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