Dreaming in Different Tongues: Languages and the Way We Think

On the Same Page: Voices of Berkeley keynote event
Moderated by Geoff Nunberg
Panelists: Scholars Lera Boroditsky and Lily Wong Fillmore; author and Cal alumna Maxine Hong Kingston; actor and Cal alumnus John Cho.
http://onthesamepage.berkeley.edu

• Category

  Education

[anthoulita zagor]

I speak 4 languages and i have dreams in all of them. Sometimes i speak them very well, correctly and without mistakes, sometimes i try to find the suitable words and i just can't. And every time when i wake up i want to speak to the language i dreamed of...weird but nice!

[lingocode]

Has anyone else woken themselves up screaming something in their second or third language, but not understood what they were saying in the daze after waking up? It's happened to me at least once...

[stlouisramsfan03]

I dream in English and or Navajo.

[Alain Rémi]

You mean you killed them all ? Or was it another tribe ? Or Navajo is now part of the Chinese military/industrial spy program ? 

[Derek Selvon]

// We all know that Navajo is more reliable !//

not anymore. that was a long time ago

[Bárbara Vale]

English is just international, but not universal. In countries where it's not the national language just the rich people and middle class so far can speak English, because it costs to learn it. And there are countries in which just the young people are able to speak it, because the elders didn't need to learn it when they were young. So no, English is not enough. And by thinking like that, you are limiting yourself.

[Alain Rémi]

The story about the Navajo kids remind me that during WW II, American troops were using Navajos as radio operators so they couldn't be understood by either German or Japanese who spoke English & were spying on them ! What will you do now ? Rely on electronics to prevent radio spying ? We all know that Navajo is more reliable !