Earlier today I started a new discussion thread on my Facebook page regarding bilingualism and second-language acquisition. The topic has garnered quite a few responses and given me cause to reflect and analyze my own linguistic performance in different languages – for whatever it is worth.

The status I posted, quite flippantly I might add, was as follows:

Have just been listening to a lecture on second language acquisition, in which the concept of bilingualism was addressed, plus one thing that I’ve never actually heard discussed before. It’s the idea that when bilingual people switch languages, they also switch personalities. It is something I’ve been aware of almost my entire life. I’ve been bilingual since I was five (well actually I was trilangual at that time – and still am, though my third language has changed) and at some point I started to realize that I felt like a different person when I spoke different languages. I used to refer to it (in jest) as being schizophrenic. Now I know there’s actually a term for it: socio-psychological. Ha! ~ Has anyone else had experience with this sense of switching personalities when you switch languages?

I am fascinated by the different responses the question has garnered, and also glad to discover that I’m not alone – that many other people experience the same thing when switching between languages.

It has also prompted me to think just how I change when speaking one language as opposed to another. I have concluded that the changes are subtle and would probably not be discernible to an outside observer unless it was someone who knows me very well. While there are certainly some slight changes in my mannerisms and tone of voice when I speak English as opposed to Icelandic (or German), it can also be hard to determine if that is a result of the language switch per se, or than the company I am keeping at any particular moment. After all, everyone changes mannerisms etc. depending on the social setting in which they find themselves.

Actually I believe that the personality change has more to do with my own psychology and how I experience myself when speaking the language than any overt changes in my bearing. A lot of that has to do with my level of comfort in the society to which the language belongs – and a lot of that has to do with cultural and social references. For example, when I was an adolescent, I lived the greater part of the year in Canada, and spent a few weeks in Iceland each summer. As I gradually moved further away from my Icelandic peers linguistically speaking, I started to feel more awkward and socially inept, which in turn had an impact on my self-image and self-esteem. By “linguistically speaking” I mean that I was out of the loop with regards to slang, turns of phrase, and the different ways of expressing myself as an adolescent in that particular language. I remember the summer when I was sixteen being quite relieved when my trip to Iceland fell through. I felt so removed from my Icelandic “self” that going there was actually quite anxiety-provoking, and I was very happy to be able to rest in my Canadian “self” for the summer.

And those different “selves” were intricately tied up with the use of the language. I can’t really say how or to what extent – and indeed, getting a comprehensive picture of all this would probably take a lot of time and self-analysis, which I’m not inclined to undertake right now. However, I suspect that this question of the personality switch has had a far greater impact on my life than I’m seeing right now and will no doubt come more clear as time goes on and I start to integrate the awareness that this “switcheroo” concept is a recognized phenomenon. In fact, I think it may have played a significant role in why I stayed away from Iceland for so long before moving back, and why I had so much anxiety about actually biting the bullet and making the move.

And just as a final thought, I find that this subtle shift in personality is not only confined to linguistics, but also the mode of expression. By which I mean that I find myself almost a different person when I sit down to write text than when I express myself verbally. But that is a topic for another day.

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