You Are What You Speak

Wow! 2015 has come and gone, and although I have done a horrible job at blogging publicly, I do want to start 2016 off by sharing something that really intrigued me. Earlier today, I came across a picture with the following statement:

“Your decisions are more rational when thought in another language.”

My first reaction? 

“Tiag ntas?”

Curious, I did more research and found that there was some validity. More specifically, studies have been done to show that “…communicating in a learned language forces people to be deliberate, reducing the role of potentially unreliable instinct. Research also shows that immediate emotional reactions to emotively charged words are muted in non-native languages…”

There have also been studies to show that “human reasoning is shaped by two distinct modes of thought, one that’s systematic, analytical and cognition-intensive, and another that’s fast, unconscious and emotionally charged.”

Although it seems obvious, the more I thought about this concept, the more it left me feeling unsettled. At what point did I cross over from Hmong being my dominant language, to English being my primary daily tongue? Am I more deliberate and rational in my professional decisions because English is my learned language? Or more emotionally driven and irrational when I think and process personal situations in Hmong? 

During what instances in my daily life do I think and process my thoughts in Hmong vs English whether it is a work, home, within the community, or in a relationship? And more so, how do these thoughts determine my actions, my attitudes, and my happiness?  Is it possible to have two completely different outcomes depending on what language I process the information?

To get even more specific...

If I spew mean things in English, does it feel like I hurt the person less because my emotions are muted? If I confess my love to someone in Hmong, does that love feel more real? 

Try it for yourself next time you are in a predicament…. If you mostly speak English at work, process the issue or problem in your native language and see how differently the situation may feel. 

A really good one is this... If you mostly speak another language at home, next time you are really upset and ready to "give it" to someone in English, process the situation in your native tongue. You may realize that what you are about to say is actually much more damaging that you imagine it to be due to your unemotional attachment to those words same words in English.  This is especially crucial when communicating among different generations with various language capacities.

I know, perhaps I am dissecting this a bit too much… but I’d like to think that I’m not THAT crazy and there is at least one other person out there in the world who can relate to my point or at the very least, understand what I am trying to articulate. 


Who knows, you may end up surprising yourself and start to ask, "Am I really what I speak?" ...and if yes, how can I take this information to make me a better communicator. I know for me, personally, this has helped a lot. 

That's all I have folks. Happy New Year!

xxoo,

Cathy