What a fun post! I lived in Sweden for two years in college and as I reflect back, I think I did try on a different personality. The early 20's are such an interesting time of self-discovery anyway that it's hard to say what was driving those choices. I think I thought I was a "cooler" me, a Californian in a foreign country, but also I was more reserved, simply because learning a language is hard. Strange enough, when I first got there my Swedish teacher told me that I was the worst student she'd ever had...yep...that was a great day. BUT...one year later, I went to sleep one night and woke up fluent. No kidding. I ran into that teacher shortly after and she said I sounded like a native speaker. She was flabbergasted.
My girlfriend in second-year university (sophomore: US :)) told me that she observed a personality change in me every time I spoke Italian with my Italian classmate: I became more animated, and my whole body language seemed to change.
Du-uh! I was speaking I t a l i a n !!
I think it illustrates what you were saying: we pick up cultural, behavio(u)ral differences. People's permeability to such environmental influences is very, very variable. Some of us (raises hand) are quite sensitive and will (try to) conform, sometimes without conscious effort, and emulate whatever behavio(u)r we see around us, whether it's pharyngealized consonants, hand gestures, standing in line, or even driving patterns.
In fact, I sometimes wonder if such permeability is a major factor in my urge to learn a new language...
That's an interesting idea that one's ability to conform to norms of interaction can in itself be a driver and motivation in language learning.. It's like you enjoy trying on these different 'masks', which is what we all like to some extent :)
What a fun post! I lived in Sweden for two years in college and as I reflect back, I think I did try on a different personality. The early 20's are such an interesting time of self-discovery anyway that it's hard to say what was driving those choices. I think I thought I was a "cooler" me, a Californian in a foreign country, but also I was more reserved, simply because learning a language is hard. Strange enough, when I first got there my Swedish teacher told me that I was the worst student she'd ever had...yep...that was a great day. BUT...one year later, I went to sleep one night and woke up fluent. No kidding. I ran into that teacher shortly after and she said I sounded like a native speaker. She was flabbergasted.
Whaaat? I'm flabbergasted at your Swedish teacher.
Yes, early 20s is a good time to learn languages because you're already trying a bunch of different personalities anyway :)
My girlfriend in second-year university (sophomore: US :)) told me that she observed a personality change in me every time I spoke Italian with my Italian classmate: I became more animated, and my whole body language seemed to change.
Du-uh! I was speaking I t a l i a n !!
I think it illustrates what you were saying: we pick up cultural, behavio(u)ral differences. People's permeability to such environmental influences is very, very variable. Some of us (raises hand) are quite sensitive and will (try to) conform, sometimes without conscious effort, and emulate whatever behavio(u)r we see around us, whether it's pharyngealized consonants, hand gestures, standing in line, or even driving patterns.
In fact, I sometimes wonder if such permeability is a major factor in my urge to learn a new language...
That's an interesting idea that one's ability to conform to norms of interaction can in itself be a driver and motivation in language learning.. It's like you enjoy trying on these different 'masks', which is what we all like to some extent :)
In even the best of circumstances, one should never strive for more than fifty sun salutations....
And still, I keep striving for 52....