Meet my multiple language personalities

I have always loved learning new languages. With four languages and counting, I decided that in the upcoming year I am going to add three more to my brain.

The more languages I learn over time, the more I start noticing that I am not just learning a bunch of new words, the proper pronunciation and appropriate grammar. Instead, I became aware of the fact that every language I studied also gave birth to a slightly different version of myself. A new personality, if you will.

When I speak Dutch, my native language, I’m your typical blunt Dutchie. On the contrary, when speaking Spanish, I am way more passionate, about literally anything. Really, anything. In French I’m such a sweet person that I hardly even recognise myself. Last but not least, English is their functional sister. In English, I get straight to the point and talk business with a slight hint of sarcasm.  

Once I realised I felt this way, I wanted to find out if I was going mad or if having multiple language personalities was in fact a linguistic phenomenon. That’s why, as part of our I/RISE research into behavioural linguistics, I decided to take a deep-dive into the behavioural side of language acquisition. 

Perhaps the fact that we get access to a new world, a whole different way of thinking, enables us to develop a new personality every time we learn a new language. Or as Juan Rámon Jiménez eloquently said:

“Quien aprende una nueva lengua adquiere una nueva alma” (Whoever learns a new language gets a new soul). 

Do we, in fact, get a new soul every time we learn a new language? Or is language acquisition operant conditioning at its finest? I would like to argue the latter.

Are we all just animals? 

When taking a behavioural linguistic approach you look at environmental triggers. Combining sociolinguistics, psychology and behavioural science, behavioural linguists believe that language can change behaviour and that everything we do is a result of an experience. Our response to environmental stimuli shape our actions and, in this case, our language. 

When learning a new language, behaviourism also comes into play. Burrhus Skinner, an influential psychologist, argued that the two were connected. His renowned operant conditioning theory, a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior, for example when training a dog, can also be applied to language.

He believed that humans are conditioned into saying the right thing through reinforcement and punishment. If a kid were to tell their parents “I’m hungry” and they are rewarded with food, the behaviour will be reinforced. We respond to environmental stimuli to find out if we’re doing a good job. Not just when we’re kids, also in adult life. Who you talk to, who you look up to, it all affects the grammar we use, our accents, but also our language identity; the values we express and the way in which we interact with other speakers.

But if we, as adults, are conditioned into shaping this language persona, then what is our end goal? What are the rewards and punishments that make it worthwhile for us to adapt?

Inclusion is our carrot, exclusion our stick 

No one likes to be the odd one out. The same goes when we learn a new language. We adjust our choice of words, our accent, and the topic we talk about to the setting we find ourselves in and more importantly, the person that we’re speaking to. Not just on an individual level.

Talking to many speakers over the course of our learning journey, we find ourselves exposed to new cultural norms and we attune our language accordingly. Our reward: belonging. Our real or imagined punishment: exclusion. In every encounter we experience a constant feedback loop showing us when we are doing it right and when we are not. 

Research, conducted on cultural accommodation when we speak another language, showed that respondents subconsciously adjust their responses in a way that reflects the cultural values with the language in question. The research examined bilingual Chinese managers and provided them with a value-based self assessment in either a Chinese or English version. It turned out that on all five of the "Western" culturally important values, the Hong Kong Chinese managers using the English-language version scored higher than the Hong Kong Chinese managers using the Chinese version. And, on all three of the "Eastern" culturally important values, the Hong Kong Chinese managers using the English-language version scored lower than the Hong Kong Chinese managers using the Chinese-language version.

Language is a conditioned mindset 

As the above mentioned research showed, we can say that language is a mindset. A mental framework consisting of values, beliefs and social ideals, that changes based on the language in which you are responding. 

These Chinese managers probably weren’t even aware of the fact that they applied a different mindset based on the language they responded in. And I must say I didn’t realise I was changing my values when speaking different languages for a long time. Even though I am in charge of what comes out of my mouth, I am the one applying a certain mindset when I speak, my environmental stimuli are the deciding factor in shaping my language personalities. 

Our environment influences our language, but at the same time our language influences our environment and we all have our unique ways of nudging behaviour with language. 

Oddly enough, many of us aren’t aware of the power of language. At the same time, linguistics research hasn’t been done to the same extent as other fields, like psychology. Hence why at I/RISE we dive into many more behavioural linguistic theories to get to the bottom of how language is used and shaped. 

Soon we will share all of our findings with you. Do you want to get involved in the meantime? Send me a message!