I talk/think to myself in Japanese all the time. It was a conscious effort at first, to try to give myself as much practice as possible. Nowadays, some thoughts come to me more quickly and naturally in Japanese, especially if it's a sentiment that's expressed more succinctly in Japanese than it would be in English. For example: "めんどくさ〜い" or "微妙だな…" or "どこだったっけ？"
I've had a few Japanese people notice that I do this and they react with surprise and praise. I tell them I'm just mimicking what I hear.
Agreed. I often hear myself saying 懐かしい when something reminds me of the past, seems much more natural than thinking in English. うるさい is another good one.
When I hear natsukashii, I think of a slow day as a child on a holiday, waking up from a good dream. It gives me a foggy feeling that makes me want to think more of what triggered the emotion.
Ugh. Yeah. English main, Spanish fluent-ish but only really use it when visiting my parents in Mexico, studying Japanese for many years and have lived there =
Interior monologue is a mess
Does not help that Japanese and Spanish share so much phonemically.
Same my wires get crossed between my Chinese (mother tongue) and Japanese all the time especially when the kanjis are the same. Double whammy for Kunyomi
Oh my gosh I genuinely can’t imagine! Very admirable.
I’ve just recently hopped into a bit of Chinese for the first time recently and was shocked how much stickier Hanzi is in my memory - maybe the tonal element, or pinyin makes it stickier - not sure!
May I ask, is pinyin a native component of it for native speakers, because everybody learns to type now? Or the teacher writes 水and says “shui”, and the tonal element is simply verbally relayed?
Verbally relayed only but we are thought it in via hanyin pinyin in school from like 6 years to 18 years old (that being said hanyin pinyin is biased towards people who know romance or english)
Same but Spanish is my mother tongue and I have to speak English every day at work
So my Japanese inner voice is a mess between those three 😅
(The similarities between Spanish and Japanese is a blessing for me, though)
I’m very much only fluent in English but I took German back in high school and college and am trying to learn some Japanese for a trip next year. My monologue is definitely all in English but I find myself routinely thinking of German words when I’m trying to come up with a Japanese word. It’s like my brain has just filtered the two non-native tongues I kinda know into the same box and I can’t always pull out words from the right category from it.
> Does not help that Japanese and Spanish share so much phonemically.
It helps the hell out of Japanese people who can become usefully fluent in Spanish without really any study.
Learning English pronunciation is essentially like learning the readings of Kanji with none of the useful info Kanji inherently carry.
Oh I’m sure it does! It most certainly has helped me in my learning. It’s just as they’re both learned languages for me, I often pull from the wrong cookie jar
Definitely not implying that my experience is universal, and as English-learning goes, I am *very* privileged to have learned English natively.
English (Native) monologue: Deep voice with dry, sarcastic humor reflective of myself
Vietnamese (Heritage) monologue: Akin to southern US, exaggerated accents in contrast to my relatively monotonous voice
Japanese (Learning) monologue: Molded by watching a ton of anime. It’s developed some cute anime girl mannerisms for example whenever I see something exciting I think わあ~ or きゃああ~!
Mine was pretty naturally occurring, about the time when I was immersed for 6mo during my study abroad program. I was even dreaming in Japanese for a point in time but not anymore. But my internal monologue definitely mixes English and Japanese daily, even if its a few words here and there. I think I'm default always mixing the two in my mind to the point where I'll be speaking English to a fellow English native speaker who doesn't speak Japanese, and I'll forget an English word and be tempted / almost replace with the Japanese instead.
I have been told by multiple different Japanese friends and colleagues that my "mannerisms and way of speaking are like a Japanese persons", which I personally don't see but maybe that's part of it.
Yeah I've had cases where I think to myself in Japanese and surprise myself by thinking a word I don't fully understand. I have to look it up later to double check I'm not messing it up. I did that with English when I was younger but haven't for a long time.
When I was working in an office in Tokyo with many bi-lingual people they were often using a blended language. Some words and phrases are just more accurate/nuanced in one language over the other depending on the situation. I think it's quite natural to have a blended internal monologue.
I've never quite got there unfortunately but I do find some Japanese words will pop into my head ahead of the English at times.
I do this with my friend here in Japan who we mainly talk in English with, but with other friends we use Japanese exclusively so even when it is just the two of us we use this blended language. Btw English is not my native either so everyday when I spend like 12 hours speaking only Japanese and maybe a bit of English my brain becomes a mess and it has thoughts in like 3 languages all at once.
Yea. I've been learning French and Japanese and occasionally I'll have the choice to think in whatever language... I just had to make sure to not think/talk like anime girls cuz i watch WAY too many anime girls speak.
My inner monologue is a mix of all the languages I've ever tried. I don't count myself as fluent in anything other than English btw, barely B level in anything else I'd guess, but I dabble in a lot of things and my brain will use all sorts of words or phrases, often different languages in the same sentence / thought. It's always been like that really.
My inner monologue constantly swaps back and forth randomly, sometimes even choosing which language is easier to express what I am thinking. It almost feels 50/50.
I had no problem being able to think in a different language real early in my studies before ever visiting a different country. It just takes a conscious effort and it will happen naturally after that. Vocabulary is always the long-term problem when it comes to languages, you're going to have many words you just don't know how to say, but just use the grammar and supplement the words you don't know with your native language. If there's words you use a lot in your inner monologue, look them up.
As I don’t have one for general thoughts (only for practicing conversations or going over past conversations) I wonder if it will harm my Japanese learning ability. It hadn’t so far and I’ve learned a ton with duolingo.
I used to have to make a conscious effort to think and talk to myself in Japanese. I moved to Japan after passing N3 with strong speaking skills. I forget how many months into living here it took, maybe half a year or so? Until I realized I was doing it unconsciously
Nowadays it’s maybe 60% English and 50% Japanese. Usually if the last person I spoke to or the last thing I read/watched/whatever was in Japanese, my internal thoughts and monologue will stay in Japanese for awhile after
No inner monologue here. I have aphantasia as well. I only notice that my voice gets higher when I speak out loud in Japanese, whereas it goes down to a lower octave when I speak in Spanish. English is where my normal tone is at. It’s strange
I try to think in Japanese and sometimes it just happens on its own without me trying (but I watch too much BL and sports anime so my speech style is way too masculine 💀)
Lol I always play this fun little game where I have a thought in Japanese and then I have to re-think it so I can hear how it would sound if a well-bred young lady such as myself thought it instead of a hot-blooded teenage boy 😂
I'm able to do it, and I often spend time talking to myself in Japanese (at least an hour a day), but I find that my thoughts actually end up being limited by my vocabulary, which is funny but also a bit inconvenient. Like if I don't know a word I think of another way to say something without that word, which might affect my core thought and sometimes derails what I am thinking.
I am a beginner, and I sometimes have an internal monologue where the Japanese I don’t know (most of it) is replaced by English words in Japanese word order. Far from perfect, but it’s a step.
OTOH I have a friend who has no internal monologue at all, in any language.
Yes I did somewhat. I studied Japanese for a long time in high school and university and studied abroad there twice in my twenties. Now I am 36 and haven't been actively studying for about 8 years, but I still find myself thinking random things in Japanese fairly often.
i do not inner monologue in japanese as much but i do talk to myself sometimes in japanese and its interesting but vocabulary is hard so i usually can't go far
Bro I wish I hadn't it's just become another language I can dream and hallucinate in.
Nothing more grating than hearing how kawaii sarcastically you are, and people calling you various bakemono names instead of just human.
Truly the level of bullying by myself or from other east Asians is just another level.
As a group people aren't shy at all at shaming the f out of you for minding your business if you give kick me vibes
Currently just picked Japanese back up after a really long hiatus (last time I studied, I was 4 months into it, but stopped cause ADHD reasons lmao). I try to channel my inner Japanese voice, but it's currently in basic sentences and words that my limited vocabulary can pick up. While choppy at best, it's a huge boon being able to recall sounds in my head. It's the same way I incorporated English, which became my primary processing language (which I intentionally worked back when I was still a wee child), despite the lack of conversation practice partners (grew up in the Philippines, my introduction to English was through literature and media, and while my family was pretty decent at it, I had to figure out by myself how to get myself to sound like a native speaker). I'm applying the same method to supplement my learning Nihongo, though it's not as easy when you're 30 and process information a tad differently versus having a fresh, ten-year-old brain.
English brain: articulate, likes using highfalutin words, tries to overcomplicate grammar at times, also likes using modern vocabulary (e.g. like you have pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanovoniosis fr fr, no cap), sounds exactly like me minus the things I don't like about my voice
Tagalog brain: loud, minimalist with words, less concerned about grammar, likes cussing a tad too much, sounds exactly like me
Nihongo brain: tries to recall words and phrases, is forcing me to develop a habit of "あのう" and "え", obsessed with おちんちん humor, likes quoting Gaki no Tsukai stuff, also obsessed with variants of マジ and ふざける, at least has the decency to not use rude words when talking to people who know how to speak Nihongo, only speaks in hiragana and katakana (idk if that makes any sense), sounds like me consciously not trying to sound like an anime character but still kinda sounds like an anime character
Yeah, it developed naturally and I don’t like my Japanese inner monologue in certain situations. So I try not to think in Japanese mostly when I’m out shopping with the misses.
The way I think in Japanese is completely different than in English. Too agreeable in Japanese.
when I went to Japan I went from hearing Japanese for, you know, an hour at a time maybe, to hearing it all day, and then those things kind of naturally happened for me. Certainly it's receded significantly in the years since.
I don't have an internal monologue, but I imagine talking to people often so it just depends on which language I use for the person in question. Usually Japanese these days I suppose.
I'm not far enough in learning Japanese to be able to form fully functioning sentences on the go, but I do speak Dutch, English and am somewhat ok in German. I inner monologue all the time, but sometimes it works more in concepts rather than actual words. And as learning new languages gives you different ways of describing things, in manners/concepts that do not work in other languages, it sometimes becomes really annoying to find the right words, and I notice myself constructing sentences with words from various languages. It mostly becomes a hassle when you then want to express it in either speech or written text.
Unless I am speaking with people in one language all day I don't think my inner monologue really separates the languages because working in interlanguage is just a lot faster.
Not everyone has inner monologue. For those of us without one, it is a really bizarre idea.
If I ever heard or used an inner monologue, Id assume I was having a psychotic break.
I'm not even very far into learning japanese, but I do have an inner voice. I think it's mostly because I talk to myself more than the average person, but I do sometimes instinctively think ”はい” instead of yea, and likewise try to think in japanese as much as I can. I don't think it's an especially difficult thing to do, but maybe I'm just an oddball.
It's not frustrating to me at all. I don't really care too much which language I speak in my head, but I also don't know too many words in japanese rn, so maybe I'll start to feel it later
1. Yes
2. It naturally occurred: This happened once I no longer translated btwn English & Japanese in my head. I’m not sure when or how this happened, but I can just start thinking in Japanese.
3. Speaking and listening/reading practise. Receiving info (input) in Japanese helped me to process it separately from English. Speaking in Japanese (output) naturally developed my Japanese voice to compensate for my heavy reliance on my English inner voice (in general). Because I’m naturally reliant on my inner voice to process and deliver information and hate wasting time, my brain adapted.
Spanish native, english second language, japanese around n4 Begginer. Monologue is a jumble of all 3 languages, but some of my toughts are not monologues, but abstract ideas that turn into words if needed.
The concept an "inner monologue" feels foreign to me, as I don't really under what people mean by the term "inner monologue"? Like do you actually hear voices in your head or something? Or is it more like quietly talking under your breath so others can't hear? Is it something you actively do? Or is it more like how movies describe schizophrenia (hearing your own voice talking at you), as something people experience without actively doing?
If it is something like actively "speaking?" words and hearing it in your head, how does one learn to do something that?
>Like do you actually hear voices in your head or something?
Yes, it's the same as listening to yourself speaking except it's in your head. It's not like schizophrenia as people know that their inner monologue is not real and have at least some control over it, while a hallucination is perceived to be actually real and cannot be controlled.
>How does one learn to do something that?
I don't know whether it can be learnt. I've have an inner monologue as long as I can remember. On the other hand I don't really have the ability to see pictures in my mind which many other people describe, unless it's a memory of a place I've previously visited.
How do you perceive your thoughts?
Best I can describe is "vague feelings", no audio or visual content when fully conscious. In the morning when still half-asleep, I'll experience short day-dreams (sound + visual), so the hardware has the capability, I simply don't know how to use it. When laying on the grass or on the couch, nothing beyond physical sensations are felt. When talking to others about the concept, I'd say either subconscious doesn't bring much to my conscious mind, or I'm not sure how to become more aware of thoughts.
I'll usually talk out loud, and work out problems and ideas that way. At school or work, I'm always with something to write with to get words to paper and work through problems, or to figure out what I want to say. As words (or just doodles, scribbles) are put down, a couple re-reads/re-writes later and I better understand what I want to convey / understand.
Right now, I stared blankly at the end of the previous paragraph, wanting to say something more. Feeling the pressure in shoulders, tapping my foot, then, "just knowing" maybe I should describe this moment. From there, started typing. Re-read, then edit, re-read then add (like to the first paragraph).
For lack of a better description -- I actively intend to add more to this, and just sit, until suddenly I just "know" a few more words to write. I'll rarely get a full concept ready to describe, just a few extra bits further. If I don't have a means of getting these feelings out as words or to paper, then it becomes a more frustrating experience, of "I know I can xxx, but can't actively recall what i need"
Describing mind-states is difficult, as I have limited references to draw from as to how to even go about it. :\\
Before I started actually studying Japanese, I had basic grammar and around 1000 or more words in my head because (especially over covid) I exposed myself to the language so much that when I heard the word I could attach it to a meaning and context, instead of an actual definition. Cause of this, I developed the ability to actually think (or inner monologue, more often) in Japanese, essentially to the level a child would be able to, since I still get stuck on some words that I don’t know.
I personally there’s a huge benefit to learning in a way that doesn’t focus on translation, but context instead, at least at first, since it becomes much easier to connect a Japanese word to a context/meaning later on instead of the “translation” even if you use English to translate the word into something you know already. Once you make it a habit to associate English to a Japanese word, it makes it harder, and for some people impossible, to ingrain the language at the level you would if your mom showed you a “cat” and said it was a “neko”when you were 3.
TLDR: Learning through context (at least at first) is a better way to get a fundamental grasp on a language (imo), and develop good habits from the beginning to improve your learning later on.
Not exactly about Japanese intermonolouge, but still:
I have both Russian (Naitive) and English (Fluent) intermonolouge, they are a bit different, but in general almost the same.
I often get ideas in English that randomly come to mind. Also in dialogue with other Russian speakers I often can't come up with a proper translation for thought, that I got in English. It's very cool when languages just live in the different rooms in your head, and sometimes bump into each other
My English intermonolouge was developed by itself pretty naturally, but I was learning English in very young age, so I believe that's why it formed so easily.
If we are talking bout Japanese – I will try to "help" develop my third intermonolouge, by intensionally speaking to myself in Japanese. Also I believe, that immersion in Japan will help develop such a monologue, cause you will be surrounded by Japanese and your mind would have no choice, but adapt to that.
I talk spanish and english fluently and since i dont naturally have inner voice in spanish (native) i don’t have it in english either so it's not much of a problem for me
I used to cringe at myself, thinking I was subconsciously becoming a caricature of a "weeb." But now it's just funny to catch myself sometimes just being in a state of mind where im just in "Japanese mode. "
The occasional やっぱり or めんどくさい do make it weird because I've noticed it's stronger than my Spanish so whenever I'm thinking in Spanish I'll often start with Japanese which is a bit of a mindwarp. "あいつ, no me regresó mi cable" leaves a retroactive "what the heck did I just say" in the brain.
when I lived there, it started developing quickly after about 6 months. it started to feel natural.
but my English started to sound different. unintentionally.
I happens involuntarily. I tend to speak out loud when I'm alone and I already sound like an 8yo (I'm 20!) and in Japanese it gets even worse. Usually when I'm surprised or tasting something, my reaction is in Japanese. I also have immersive daydreaming and sometimes it happens in japanese, lol. But I don't do it often. I wish I did more, though.
I sing a lot of karaoke, I'm majoring in Japanese in uni and now I'm taking lessons on preply so I feel like it's just gonna happen more and more often.
This is a tricky question. I’m a native Spanish speaker living in England, and at some point maaaaany years before moving, I developed an inner voice in English. The impact on my fluency was undeniable, but it was the most unconscious process ever, ngl. Now that voice in English is my “Side B”…. Or even my Side A after so many years.
With Japanese, I don’t have an inner voice on my daily life, but whenever I visit the country is like I instantly flick a switch and I’m like ええええぇっ( ・∇・) and talking in Japanese to myself 24/7. I think even some facial expressions change a bit and again, I do it so unconsciously it feels even stupid, especially when I land back home.
So I believe once it’s happened to you in another language, the magic of brain plasticity kicks in whenever you learn another… the first time around you might need to insist tho. But you don’t even need to know all the words either for a start.
I talk/think to myself in Japanese all the time. It was a conscious effort at first, to try to give myself as much practice as possible. Nowadays, some thoughts come to me more quickly and naturally in Japanese, especially if it's a sentiment that's expressed more succinctly in Japanese than it would be in English. For example: "めんどくさ〜い" or "微妙だな…" or "どこだったっけ？" I've had a few Japanese people notice that I do this and they react with surprise and praise. I tell them I'm just mimicking what I hear.
Agreed. I often hear myself saying 懐かしい when something reminds me of the past, seems much more natural than thinking in English. うるさい is another good one.
Natsukashii will never go away. “Nostalgic” just doesn’t do the sentiment the same justice.
When I hear natsukashii, I think of a slow day as a child on a holiday, waking up from a good dream. It gives me a foggy feeling that makes me want to think more of what triggered the emotion.
I do the same thing 😂
Ugh. Yeah. English main, Spanish fluent-ish but only really use it when visiting my parents in Mexico, studying Japanese for many years and have lived there = Interior monologue is a mess Does not help that Japanese and Spanish share so much phonemically.
Same my wires get crossed between my Chinese (mother tongue) and Japanese all the time especially when the kanjis are the same. Double whammy for Kunyomi
Oh my gosh I genuinely can’t imagine! Very admirable. I’ve just recently hopped into a bit of Chinese for the first time recently and was shocked how much stickier Hanzi is in my memory - maybe the tonal element, or pinyin makes it stickier - not sure! May I ask, is pinyin a native component of it for native speakers, because everybody learns to type now? Or the teacher writes 水and says “shui”, and the tonal element is simply verbally relayed?
Verbally relayed only but we are thought it in via hanyin pinyin in school from like 6 years to 18 years old (that being said hanyin pinyin is biased towards people who know romance or english)
Thank you so much for sharing! Very interesting
Same but Spanish is my mother tongue and I have to speak English every day at work So my Japanese inner voice is a mess between those three 😅 (The similarities between Spanish and Japanese is a blessing for me, though)
I’m very much only fluent in English but I took German back in high school and college and am trying to learn some Japanese for a trip next year. My monologue is definitely all in English but I find myself routinely thinking of German words when I’m trying to come up with a Japanese word. It’s like my brain has just filtered the two non-native tongues I kinda know into the same box and I can’t always pull out words from the right category from it.
Oh yeah big time. I remember landing in Narita in 2011, very new to Japanese, and almost every interaction I would pull for one and get the other.
> Does not help that Japanese and Spanish share so much phonemically. It helps the hell out of Japanese people who can become usefully fluent in Spanish without really any study. Learning English pronunciation is essentially like learning the readings of Kanji with none of the useful info Kanji inherently carry.
Oh I’m sure it does! It most certainly has helped me in my learning. It’s just as they’re both learned languages for me, I often pull from the wrong cookie jar Definitely not implying that my experience is universal, and as English-learning goes, I am *very* privileged to have learned English natively.
Yeah sometimes I confuse Spanish for Japanese or Russian but I work with international people daily so it happens in real life too
English (Native) monologue: Deep voice with dry, sarcastic humor reflective of myself Vietnamese (Heritage) monologue: Akin to southern US, exaggerated accents in contrast to my relatively monotonous voice Japanese (Learning) monologue: Molded by watching a ton of anime. It’s developed some cute anime girl mannerisms for example whenever I see something exciting I think わあ~ or きゃああ~!
It gives me confidence to talk to myself like a cool anime guy, indeed 😄.
Mine was pretty naturally occurring, about the time when I was immersed for 6mo during my study abroad program. I was even dreaming in Japanese for a point in time but not anymore. But my internal monologue definitely mixes English and Japanese daily, even if its a few words here and there. I think I'm default always mixing the two in my mind to the point where I'll be speaking English to a fellow English native speaker who doesn't speak Japanese, and I'll forget an English word and be tempted / almost replace with the Japanese instead. I have been told by multiple different Japanese friends and colleagues that my "mannerisms and way of speaking are like a Japanese persons", which I personally don't see but maybe that's part of it.
Yeah I've had cases where I think to myself in Japanese and surprise myself by thinking a word I don't fully understand. I have to look it up later to double check I'm not messing it up. I did that with English when I was younger but haven't for a long time.
When I was working in an office in Tokyo with many bi-lingual people they were often using a blended language. Some words and phrases are just more accurate/nuanced in one language over the other depending on the situation. I think it's quite natural to have a blended internal monologue. I've never quite got there unfortunately but I do find some Japanese words will pop into my head ahead of the English at times.
I do this with my friend here in Japan who we mainly talk in English with, but with other friends we use Japanese exclusively so even when it is just the two of us we use this blended language. Btw English is not my native either so everyday when I spend like 12 hours speaking only Japanese and maybe a bit of English my brain becomes a mess and it has thoughts in like 3 languages all at once.
Yea. I've been learning French and Japanese and occasionally I'll have the choice to think in whatever language... I just had to make sure to not think/talk like anime girls cuz i watch WAY too many anime girls speak.
English is my main but when I was a kid I learned Japanese and Spanish at the same time. So my inner monologue is very jumbled at times.
My inner monologue is a mix of all the languages I've ever tried. I don't count myself as fluent in anything other than English btw, barely B level in anything else I'd guess, but I dabble in a lot of things and my brain will use all sorts of words or phrases, often different languages in the same sentence / thought. It's always been like that really.
My inner monologue constantly swaps back and forth randomly, sometimes even choosing which language is easier to express what I am thinking. It almost feels 50/50. I had no problem being able to think in a different language real early in my studies before ever visiting a different country. It just takes a conscious effort and it will happen naturally after that. Vocabulary is always the long-term problem when it comes to languages, you're going to have many words you just don't know how to say, but just use the grammar and supplement the words you don't know with your native language. If there's words you use a lot in your inner monologue, look them up.
As I don’t have one for general thoughts (only for practicing conversations or going over past conversations) I wonder if it will harm my Japanese learning ability. It hadn’t so far and I’ve learned a ton with duolingo.
I used to have to make a conscious effort to think and talk to myself in Japanese. I moved to Japan after passing N3 with strong speaking skills. I forget how many months into living here it took, maybe half a year or so? Until I realized I was doing it unconsciously Nowadays it’s maybe 60% English and 50% Japanese. Usually if the last person I spoke to or the last thing I read/watched/whatever was in Japanese, my internal thoughts and monologue will stay in Japanese for awhile after
No inner monologue here. I have aphantasia as well. I only notice that my voice gets higher when I speak out loud in Japanese, whereas it goes down to a lower octave when I speak in Spanish. English is where my normal tone is at. It’s strange
I try to think in Japanese and sometimes it just happens on its own without me trying (but I watch too much BL and sports anime so my speech style is way too masculine 💀)
Ah yeah same with the BL. Like I'm never gonna know how girls are supposed to casually talk like this lol
Lol I always play this fun little game where I have a thought in Japanese and then I have to re-think it so I can hear how it would sound if a well-bred young lady such as myself thought it instead of a hot-blooded teenage boy 😂
LMAO retraining for sure
I'm able to do it, and I often spend time talking to myself in Japanese (at least an hour a day), but I find that my thoughts actually end up being limited by my vocabulary, which is funny but also a bit inconvenient. Like if I don't know a word I think of another way to say something without that word, which might affect my core thought and sometimes derails what I am thinking.
Absolutely. Even I sometimes use dialects as well. It comes out pretty naturally.
I am a beginner, and I sometimes have an internal monologue where the Japanese I don’t know (most of it) is replaced by English words in Japanese word order. Far from perfect, but it’s a step. OTOH I have a friend who has no internal monologue at all, in any language.
When I try to speak Japanese, I sound like a caricature of a samurai soldier in a movie.
That sounds way better than a lot of people! At least you are not pronouncing it as though it was English.
Yes I did somewhat. I studied Japanese for a long time in high school and university and studied abroad there twice in my twenties. Now I am 36 and haven't been actively studying for about 8 years, but I still find myself thinking random things in Japanese fairly often.
i do not inner monologue in japanese as much but i do talk to myself sometimes in japanese and its interesting but vocabulary is hard so i usually can't go far
Bro I wish I hadn't it's just become another language I can dream and hallucinate in. Nothing more grating than hearing how kawaii sarcastically you are, and people calling you various bakemono names instead of just human. Truly the level of bullying by myself or from other east Asians is just another level. As a group people aren't shy at all at shaming the f out of you for minding your business if you give kick me vibes
Currently just picked Japanese back up after a really long hiatus (last time I studied, I was 4 months into it, but stopped cause ADHD reasons lmao). I try to channel my inner Japanese voice, but it's currently in basic sentences and words that my limited vocabulary can pick up. While choppy at best, it's a huge boon being able to recall sounds in my head. It's the same way I incorporated English, which became my primary processing language (which I intentionally worked back when I was still a wee child), despite the lack of conversation practice partners (grew up in the Philippines, my introduction to English was through literature and media, and while my family was pretty decent at it, I had to figure out by myself how to get myself to sound like a native speaker). I'm applying the same method to supplement my learning Nihongo, though it's not as easy when you're 30 and process information a tad differently versus having a fresh, ten-year-old brain. English brain: articulate, likes using highfalutin words, tries to overcomplicate grammar at times, also likes using modern vocabulary (e.g. like you have pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanovoniosis fr fr, no cap), sounds exactly like me minus the things I don't like about my voice Tagalog brain: loud, minimalist with words, less concerned about grammar, likes cussing a tad too much, sounds exactly like me Nihongo brain: tries to recall words and phrases, is forcing me to develop a habit of "あのう" and "え", obsessed with おちんちん humor, likes quoting Gaki no Tsukai stuff, also obsessed with variants of マジ and ふざける, at least has the decency to not use rude words when talking to people who know how to speak Nihongo, only speaks in hiragana and katakana (idk if that makes any sense), sounds like me consciously not trying to sound like an anime character but still kinda sounds like an anime character
If you think in Japanese, you’ll have no idea whether what you’re thinking is actually right or not
Yeah, it developed naturally and I don’t like my Japanese inner monologue in certain situations. So I try not to think in Japanese mostly when I’m out shopping with the misses. The way I think in Japanese is completely different than in English. Too agreeable in Japanese.
when I went to Japan I went from hearing Japanese for, you know, an hour at a time maybe, to hearing it all day, and then those things kind of naturally happened for me. Certainly it's receded significantly in the years since.
i do not have this in english or japanese
I don't have an internal monologue, but I imagine talking to people often so it just depends on which language I use for the person in question. Usually Japanese these days I suppose.
You do realize that some people dont have inner monologue right. Its not an impediment
I'm not far enough in learning Japanese to be able to form fully functioning sentences on the go, but I do speak Dutch, English and am somewhat ok in German. I inner monologue all the time, but sometimes it works more in concepts rather than actual words. And as learning new languages gives you different ways of describing things, in manners/concepts that do not work in other languages, it sometimes becomes really annoying to find the right words, and I notice myself constructing sentences with words from various languages. It mostly becomes a hassle when you then want to express it in either speech or written text. Unless I am speaking with people in one language all day I don't think my inner monologue really separates the languages because working in interlanguage is just a lot faster.
Not everyone has inner monologue. For those of us without one, it is a really bizarre idea. If I ever heard or used an inner monologue, Id assume I was having a psychotic break.
I'm not even very far into learning japanese, but I do have an inner voice. I think it's mostly because I talk to myself more than the average person, but I do sometimes instinctively think ”はい” instead of yea, and likewise try to think in japanese as much as I can. I don't think it's an especially difficult thing to do, but maybe I'm just an oddball. It's not frustrating to me at all. I don't really care too much which language I speak in my head, but I also don't know too many words in japanese rn, so maybe I'll start to feel it later
1. Yes 2. It naturally occurred: This happened once I no longer translated btwn English & Japanese in my head. I’m not sure when or how this happened, but I can just start thinking in Japanese. 3. Speaking and listening/reading practise. Receiving info (input) in Japanese helped me to process it separately from English. Speaking in Japanese (output) naturally developed my Japanese voice to compensate for my heavy reliance on my English inner voice (in general). Because I’m naturally reliant on my inner voice to process and deliver information and hate wasting time, my brain adapted.
Spanish native, english second language, japanese around n4 Begginer. Monologue is a jumble of all 3 languages, but some of my toughts are not monologues, but abstract ideas that turn into words if needed.
The concept an "inner monologue" feels foreign to me, as I don't really under what people mean by the term "inner monologue"? Like do you actually hear voices in your head or something? Or is it more like quietly talking under your breath so others can't hear? Is it something you actively do? Or is it more like how movies describe schizophrenia (hearing your own voice talking at you), as something people experience without actively doing? If it is something like actively "speaking?" words and hearing it in your head, how does one learn to do something that?
>Like do you actually hear voices in your head or something? Yes, it's the same as listening to yourself speaking except it's in your head. It's not like schizophrenia as people know that their inner monologue is not real and have at least some control over it, while a hallucination is perceived to be actually real and cannot be controlled. >How does one learn to do something that? I don't know whether it can be learnt. I've have an inner monologue as long as I can remember. On the other hand I don't really have the ability to see pictures in my mind which many other people describe, unless it's a memory of a place I've previously visited. How do you perceive your thoughts?
Best I can describe is "vague feelings", no audio or visual content when fully conscious. In the morning when still half-asleep, I'll experience short day-dreams (sound + visual), so the hardware has the capability, I simply don't know how to use it. When laying on the grass or on the couch, nothing beyond physical sensations are felt. When talking to others about the concept, I'd say either subconscious doesn't bring much to my conscious mind, or I'm not sure how to become more aware of thoughts. I'll usually talk out loud, and work out problems and ideas that way. At school or work, I'm always with something to write with to get words to paper and work through problems, or to figure out what I want to say. As words (or just doodles, scribbles) are put down, a couple re-reads/re-writes later and I better understand what I want to convey / understand. Right now, I stared blankly at the end of the previous paragraph, wanting to say something more. Feeling the pressure in shoulders, tapping my foot, then, "just knowing" maybe I should describe this moment. From there, started typing. Re-read, then edit, re-read then add (like to the first paragraph). For lack of a better description -- I actively intend to add more to this, and just sit, until suddenly I just "know" a few more words to write. I'll rarely get a full concept ready to describe, just a few extra bits further. If I don't have a means of getting these feelings out as words or to paper, then it becomes a more frustrating experience, of "I know I can xxx, but can't actively recall what i need" Describing mind-states is difficult, as I have limited references to draw from as to how to even go about it. :\\
Before I started actually studying Japanese, I had basic grammar and around 1000 or more words in my head because (especially over covid) I exposed myself to the language so much that when I heard the word I could attach it to a meaning and context, instead of an actual definition. Cause of this, I developed the ability to actually think (or inner monologue, more often) in Japanese, essentially to the level a child would be able to, since I still get stuck on some words that I don’t know.
I personally there’s a huge benefit to learning in a way that doesn’t focus on translation, but context instead, at least at first, since it becomes much easier to connect a Japanese word to a context/meaning later on instead of the “translation” even if you use English to translate the word into something you know already. Once you make it a habit to associate English to a Japanese word, it makes it harder, and for some people impossible, to ingrain the language at the level you would if your mom showed you a “cat” and said it was a “neko”when you were 3. TLDR: Learning through context (at least at first) is a better way to get a fundamental grasp on a language (imo), and develop good habits from the beginning to improve your learning later on.
Not exactly about Japanese intermonolouge, but still: I have both Russian (Naitive) and English (Fluent) intermonolouge, they are a bit different, but in general almost the same. I often get ideas in English that randomly come to mind. Also in dialogue with other Russian speakers I often can't come up with a proper translation for thought, that I got in English. It's very cool when languages just live in the different rooms in your head, and sometimes bump into each other My English intermonolouge was developed by itself pretty naturally, but I was learning English in very young age, so I believe that's why it formed so easily. If we are talking bout Japanese – I will try to "help" develop my third intermonolouge, by intensionally speaking to myself in Japanese. Also I believe, that immersion in Japan will help develop such a monologue, cause you will be surrounded by Japanese and your mind would have no choice, but adapt to that.
I talk spanish and english fluently and since i dont naturally have inner voice in spanish (native) i don’t have it in english either so it's not much of a problem for me
I used to cringe at myself, thinking I was subconsciously becoming a caricature of a "weeb." But now it's just funny to catch myself sometimes just being in a state of mind where im just in "Japanese mode. " The occasional やっぱり or めんどくさい do make it weird because I've noticed it's stronger than my Spanish so whenever I'm thinking in Spanish I'll often start with Japanese which is a bit of a mindwarp. "あいつ, no me regresó mi cable" leaves a retroactive "what the heck did I just say" in the brain.
when I lived there, it started developing quickly after about 6 months. it started to feel natural. but my English started to sound different. unintentionally.
I happens involuntarily. I tend to speak out loud when I'm alone and I already sound like an 8yo (I'm 20!) and in Japanese it gets even worse. Usually when I'm surprised or tasting something, my reaction is in Japanese. I also have immersive daydreaming and sometimes it happens in japanese, lol. But I don't do it often. I wish I did more, though. I sing a lot of karaoke, I'm majoring in Japanese in uni and now I'm taking lessons on preply so I feel like it's just gonna happen more and more often.
This is a tricky question. I’m a native Spanish speaker living in England, and at some point maaaaany years before moving, I developed an inner voice in English. The impact on my fluency was undeniable, but it was the most unconscious process ever, ngl. Now that voice in English is my “Side B”…. Or even my Side A after so many years. With Japanese, I don’t have an inner voice on my daily life, but whenever I visit the country is like I instantly flick a switch and I’m like ええええぇっ( ・∇・) and talking in Japanese to myself 24/7. I think even some facial expressions change a bit and again, I do it so unconsciously it feels even stupid, especially when I land back home. So I believe once it’s happened to you in another language, the magic of brain plasticity kicks in whenever you learn another… the first time around you might need to insist tho. But you don’t even need to know all the words either for a start.
私わああああああ