How many people do you know that speak more than their mother tongue ?
There are lots of people who only speak one language.
Did you know the language you think in dictates the way you think everything ( by default, automatically ) ?
By consequence, this is why bilingual or multilingual people see things from many different angles.
This goes far beyond the order of the subject and the predicate in a given sentence. The basis of language date so far back not even linguists can properly identify what came from where and how, but it often has to do with something related to an actual or a past way of understanding/dealing with the world. That's why some concepts that are very familiar to a native japanese may seem completely alien to an american for example. History/geography/context is different.
English isn't my mother tongue, but I've been at it for years and the first time I remember actually realizing that I can understand it properly in a live situation (no dictionary, no pauses, no teacher) was when I surprised myself watching a movie without any subtitle whatsoever and being aware of it 30 minutes in:
- Hmm, what's that word he just said ?
- Wait, what ? Where's the subtitle ?
- OMG no sub was loaded !
- Whoa! I'm 30 min in already !
That was a pleasant shock and right there and then I realized I no longer needed to translate it, I was literally thinking in English probably for the first time in my life. Wonderful sensation.
And then came the awkwardness when I was overthinking in English and making a mess of my own language.
-That issue has been addressed-
Afterwards however, I noticed the big revelation: It's not the words that change, it's way you put them together, the way you see the world through them; it's as if you take the collective identity of a nation, for example the UK and use it's whole experience on this planet to figure out your personal position relative to the world and to think about life in general.
Now moving on to more present days: I love anime. Hate to see it dubbed, Love to watch it subbed. Soon I want to watch it raw.
Japanese: A whole different beast. On so many levels: some obvious, some really subtle. I had to pause and research a term or a concept (e.g. a custom's name, a special drink/food, a special day) so many times while watching, because even if the translation was spot on, it still didn't make sense or wasn't funny. Even so, I had to make friends who are passionate about these things too and to ask them and to discover hidden meanings and mind-blowing differences. For example, to me, the notion of "enemy" used to mean a hostile target, that must be avoided if possible or destroyed if necessary, shown no mercy, given no quarter, despised as inferior, looked down upon. After researching a bit into the ways of the warrior and many other related interpretations I discovered they attach a certain philosophical and even spiritual dimension to the term enemy, as being the one fundamental aspect of duality by which you discover yourself, your limits, and most importantly your weaknesses, and thus the "enemy" becomes something to be treated with great respect and admiration, even after being defeated, and especially after being defeated, for without the enemy, you could not have improved yourself and would have stagnated physically and spiritually into a life of ignorance.
So that's different. That's actually one of those things people call a culture shock. Anyway, a welcome one (in this particular case).
Also the way they write, one could literally (no pun intended) learn by description or meaning all most-commonly-used kanji and then hiragana and katakana (these are the 3 writing systems of the Japanese) and visit japan and figure out pretty much everything written everywhere on any wall (and they do love to write pretty much everywhere) read books, find his way around, without any problem whatsoever while at the same time not knowing even one word in actual spoken Japanese.
It's doable, with any logographic system. And when you study it you begin to see how they think. Or how the ones who invented it thought they should think (and these ancient ones were Chinese).
Point being, you're pretty locked in place with only your own native language. And what makes it worse is that you don't feel yourself locked in place at all, until you discover that there are OH SO MANY other ways of seeing the world and thinking about it that you.. err.. never even considered... ever.. before. Ever. Huh!
Let that sink in for a minute, and go learn a language until you need no subtitles. Or dictionaries. 99% of the time :))
(ps: funny thing: how could you learn a language until you need no subtitles ? That's thinking English. In my language, it makes no sense at all to need <nothing of something>. Talk about different ways of seeing the world)
