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Thinking in Esperanto

de Lee, 24 de novembre de 2008

Missatges: 16

Llengua: English

Lee (Mostra el perfil) 24 de novembre de 2008 11.44.48

I'm just a beginner, but I've been thinking about thinking in Esperanto. For some reason I find the idea of thinking in Esperanto (or, really, in any language other than one's native language) to be intriguing and appealing.

For those of you who are more advanced, do you think in Esperanto? Do you make an active effort to think in Esperanto? If you do, do you spend a significant proportion of your thinking doing it in Esperanto? Do any of you consider Esperanto to be your "main" language, at least in an inner fashion (since I imagine most of us don't get the opportunity to use Esperanto aloud for a significant portion of the day)?

mnlg (Mostra el perfil) 24 de novembre de 2008 12.07.11

Lee:For those of you who are more advanced, do think in Esperanto?
After several hours (at most a day or two) in any esperanto-only event or meeting, yes, I have to make an effort to think in my own language and to avoid esperanto.

Miland (Mostra el perfil) 24 de novembre de 2008 14.37.02

I would say that thinking is speaking to yourself in Esperanto - and so the good news is that, beginner or not, you yourself can already do this, albeit at a basic level. With time, you will find yourself getting better and better at it. I've only met one denaskulo who could use Esperanto as fluently as his native English. mnlg might be able to manage it, but he's one of the most experienced Esperantists on this forum!

Let me test myself by saying all that in Esperanto -
(corrections thanks to mnlg)
Mi dirus ke pensado estas paroli kun vi mem en Esperanto - kaj do, la bona novaĵo estas ke, ĉu komencanto aŭ ne, vi mem jam povas fari ĉi tion, kvankam je baza nivelo. Dum tempo, vi trovos ke vi pliboniĝos. Mi renkontis nur unu denaskulon, kiu povis uzi Esperanton tiel flue kiel sian denaskan anglan. mnlg eble povas fari tion, sed li estas unu el la plej spertaj Esperantistoj en ĉi tiu forumo!

Well, I didn't use a dictionary there, but I can assure you that at Esperanto Congresses or summer schools, I would carry one with me constantly!

Ironchef (Mostra el perfil) 24 de novembre de 2008 15.37.39

Lee:... For some reason I find the idea of thinking in Esperanto (or, really, in any language other than one's native language) to be intriguing and appealing.
When I was learning Dutch about 15 years ago, I got to the point where I would walk around Amsterdam thinking in Dutch and opening my mouth Dutch would flow freely. Sadly; unless you are 100% immersed in a language those moments are few and far between. I have found myself thinking in Esperanto a little but only after reading an article or chatting in the Tujmesaĝilo for any length of time!

I would love to become fluent enough that I could construct deep meaningful thoughts in Esperanto in my head and use the language without effort. Maybe one day ridulo.gif

Frankouche (Mostra el perfil) 24 de novembre de 2008 18.35.47

I do not think in Esperanto, but i do automatic answers with; for instance in my bathroom under the shower rideto.gif, or these last days i have noticed, when i tried to speak english for hours with an englishman, it was a mix of english with arabic and esperanto, which i could not control, for one hour...
After some glass of wine, english came almost fully... rideto.gif

Rogir (Mostra el perfil) 24 de novembre de 2008 22.06.07

I usually don't think in Esperanto, but when I imagine some sentence in Spanish or Italian, two languages I barely speak, it usually comes out as esperanto with Italian or Spanish words in between, but that may be because they are to me quite similar to Esperanto.

erinja (Mostra el perfil) 25 de novembre de 2008 1.26.22

I don't go around thinking in Esperanto all the time, although my Esperanto is good.

But at Esperanto events, yes, I do think in Esperanto, though not 100% of the time. I tend to link languages to specific people or specific events. So, for example, I work in English. It is hard for me to think about my work in Esperanto, because I don't know the vocabulary for what I do, and I never use Esperanto in my professional life. On the other hand, I communicate with my Esperanto friends in Esperanto only (with the exception of a few Americans who I've spent a lot of time with in non-Esperanto settings). When I think about those friends, when I think about time I have spent with them, and when I think about things I have said to them, or that they have said to me, all of those thoughts automatically come in Esperanto.

Interestingly, I once went hiking with another Esperantist. It is an activity I seldom engage in, and this hike was the first I'd done in some time. A couple of months later, I went hiking with a university group. I found myself thinking in Esperanto for much of the time. Somehow, my brain had come to associate the infrequent action of hiking, with Esperanto.

danielcg (Mostra el perfil) 26 de novembre de 2008 0.03.57

Hi all.

Now I'm thinking in English, just as I did a moment ago when I was reading the messages. However, my mother tongue is not English but Spanish.

When I was learning English I was told to try not to think in Spanish and then translate into English, but just to think in English. Though at first it may seem more difficult, in the long run it is easier, because, since no language structure is an exact clone of another, it is really hard to think in one language and speak in another. The same happens when one is reading in a language: it is harder to read in one language and mentally translate to another one.

The third (and up till now the last) language I learnt was Esperanto. I applied to it what I had already learnt about English, but I found thinking in Esperanto was even more important, because the flexibility of its grammar, along with the richness of the affix system and the word-joining (I've just made an exception, translating "vortokunmetado" into English, since I don't know of a similiar concept in this language), makes it easy to express in Esperanto concepts you don't know how to easily say in your own national language.

There's just one drawback when thinking in the language you're speaking, reading or writing in. From time to time I can't help finding myself in a rather silly situation. Let's suppose I'm speaking in Esperanto about, say, a movie. Then I quote a phrase from that movie, in English. Chances are that my next phrases will go on in English, forgetting that I was previously speaking in Esperanto. I don't recall this happening to me when the main language is Spanish and the quoted one is another. But it has happened to me when quoting a phrase in English to someone with whom I was talking in Esperanto, or viceversa.

Believe me: do your best to think in the language you are reading, writing or speaking in. The effort will more than pay itself off in the long run.

Regards,

Daniel

Senlando (Mostra el perfil) 26 de novembre de 2008 0.07.45

interesting topic, i think though unless people are almost completely equally bilingual, they will always have a dominant language of higher thought. Usually most people's thoughts are probably based on the language where they are able to do higher thinking in. I usually think in english, unless i make a mental effort to think in mandarin or esperanto, and when i think back to conversations i'v had, i always think in the original language of the conversation. Strange thing, even though i lived most of my life in a mandarin speaking country, even my dreams are primarily in english, unless the people in the dreams are real life people i know who don;t speak english. it be cool if someone would do a study on this especially as the world becomes more globalized.

Senlando (Mostra el perfil) 26 de novembre de 2008 0.18.06

thanks for the advice danielcg

it's funny, often when i go to an esperanto website, I'll just start reading and forget that I'm reading esperanto without transilating to english. but as soon as i realize i'm reading in esperanto i automatically start translating it into english. i guess I better work on that.

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