bzhuo373's Weblog Site • NuTang.com

I'm a thoughtful sort of person. I like to think things over before coming to a conclusion. I am not loud or persuasive.

But China changed me.

I had been living in China for three years and felt comfortable in the language and culture. I have also lived in Japan, France and Canada for a long time and I realized how I somehow change personalities when I switch speaking languages. I notice when I speak English I may sound like any other English Canadian but I know deep down that I am not English nor Canadian, English is just a neutral language of business with lack of stimulus, culture or emotion. French spoken in France I find is very “clean” unlike Quebecois, which has more tone, more activity to it accesses a more passionate side, similar to other Japanese dialects and Chinese languages. A summer in Quebec, even when I speak the southern Japanese dialect I feel livelier than when I speak the regular Tokyo Japanese.

The existence of my aggressive side fully hit me one day in southwest China. I was looking for a luggage carrier, at one of the major outdoor markets. When the store owner quoted me the fare, I was incredulous: it sounded far too high. I spoke out in Chinese that no way I was going to pay that price. I halved the fare and paid the shop owner, insisting that was more than enough. I would never think of doing this when I speak Japanese or English or French.

Where language meets personality

I've always been fascinated by the intersection of language and personality. With the experience of my own split linguistic personalities, I was especially intrigued by a recent study that shows people who live in two cultures may unconsciously change their personality, or identity, when they switch languages.

According to researcher David Luna at Baruch College at the City University of New York, identity has traditionally been thought of as stable. But research in the past decade shows that identity is fluid, changing with the context.
People do shift between different interpretations of same events, but the study shows that bicultural people do it more readily. Language seems to be the switch.

This makes sense to me. When I speak Japanese, Chinese, French or English, I feel like I was split into four different people. Four containers, or bottles if you will, represented my different personalities.

Depending on the topic I find it difficult to express myself in one language but easier in another. What comes naturally in Japanese does not come naturally in English. There are topics that I cannot explain in English that need the help of Japanese or Chinese. Of course three years ago my Chinese personality was empty but as I gradually gained vocabulary and an ear for Chinese, the bottle filled up. It was when I achieved a sense of humor and dreaming in Chinese that I felt the bottle was finally full.

Chinese was the first language I learned after 16 years old and I felt different, life did not feel the same I would feel like I was speaking another language when I know the person I was speaking to did not understand any other language. I felt different when I spoke Chinese: more joie de vivre, an ability to savor the daily pleasures in life.

Our authentic self

"Language is one of the most powerful cues to activate a culturally specific way of doing things, thereby activating a different identity," says researcher Luna, who is originally from Spain.

His study showed Hispanic women interpreted the same advertisement differently, depending on whether it was in Spanish or in English. They viewed the woman in the Spanish ad as more independent and assertive than the same woman in the English ad.

So why do people tap into different identities when they switch language and culture?
It seems one language and culture can speak more to our authentic self than another. Take the Hispanic women in the study. The researchers note that, in Hispanic culture, women are becoming more independent and assertive, fighting for equal rights. It stands to reason the Hispanic women saw the actress in the Spanish ad as self-sufficient and extroverted.

Conversely, the Hispanic women saw the actress in English as less independent and lonely, reflecting an Anglo culture the researchers cite as becoming more traditional. So language reflects culture, which then activates identity.

A song to sing

Just as these Hispanic women interpret images based on different cultures, I find I can also interpret behaviors based on the culture I'm living in.
For example, I think it completely acceptable, even commendable, to break into song in the middle of supper in French, but not so much in English; somehow, it's not proper, not part of the conservative British/Japanese tradition. Perhaps when speaking Japanese dialects or other Chinese languages I find it more acceptable.

Despite the benefits of being bicultural, it can be a struggle to reconcile our different selves. Sometimes I don't recognize my voice when I speak English but I believe, the benefits of being bicultural or tri-cultural far outweigh the negatives. The value added only makes for a fuller life.

I think about the millions of people who speak and live in just one language and culture and I wonder if they are somehow missing out. Maybe they're not really expressing all parts of themselves but again, what you don't know, you can't miss. As Voltaire said, "Sans variété, point de beauté."

Categories: linguistic personalities [t], linguistics [t], language [t]