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Dreaming in other languages

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katilica
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 Message 17 of 28
28 January 2010 at 3:43am | IP Logged 
The only time I recall dreaming in french was when i studied a big set of flash cards. I don't even know if it qualifies as dreaming because the whole time I was just studying the flash cards. I didn't see myself studying the flashcards but rather, my mind was still active and I spent the whole night going thorugh the flashcards in my head and getting mad at myself over verb conjugations. I woke up repeating in my mind, 'avoir honte' and 'n'arriver pas à dormir'. It was very weird since I slept several hours and it wasn't just a short nap. I am clearly a very disturbed person.
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Teango
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 Message 18 of 28
28 January 2010 at 5:44pm | IP Logged 
meramarina wrote:
I dreamed that I was trapped inside a very long, convoluted German sentence. I was afraid I would never escape and I did not know why.

This sounds uncannily familiar to my waking experience with "Der Tod in Venedig" by Thomas Mann. Wow, I never realised sentences could last an entire page until I started reading German literature. Key verb naturally towards the very end ;) I'm glad you were presented with a solution and eventually escaped this grammatical nightmare. Perhaps you indulged in some Kafka and cocoa before hitting the hay that particular night?

Edited by Teango on 28 January 2010 at 6:24pm

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Muz9
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 Message 19 of 28
28 January 2010 at 5:50pm | IP Logged 
I force myself to think as much in English as possible which led to some dreams being fully in English. I sound a lot better in my thoughts/dreams than in real-life though. :(
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Teango
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 Message 20 of 28
28 January 2010 at 6:21pm | IP Logged 
Iversen wrote:
I 'thought' about language relationships in terms of birds, - with the Gaelic languages as a row of almost identical green parakeets sitting on a branch

I like this dream image, it has a warm sense of freedom about it...the genealogy of languages is often symbolised as a tree, but rarely conveyed as a sheltering home for its feathered fledglings - perhaps this is the leafy fruitful Tree of Polyglottery :) It's also interesting how learners tend to associate a colour with a particular language, either consciously or perhaps even in their dreamworlds. Often it's all too easy to see where the association came from, derived perhaps from national colours or recognisable features in the landscape (Ireland as the emerald isle, for example); for others the choice remains more subtle and mysterious...

Edited by Teango on 28 January 2010 at 6:27pm

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meramarina
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 Message 21 of 28
28 January 2010 at 6:27pm | IP Logged 
Quote:
This sounds uncannily familiar to my experience with "Der Tod in Venedig" by Thomas Mann. Wow, I never realised sentences could last an entire page until I started reading German literature. Key verb naturally on the very end ;) I'm glad you were presented with a solution and eventually escaped this grammatical nightmare. Perhaps you indulged in some Kafka and cocoa before hitting the hay that particular night?


I am frightened to experience page-long sentences in German! I don't know why, because there are a few English language writers I've read who write this way--William Faulkner and Henry James were my buddies back in school, I liked maximum difficulty back then!--but with them, it is a stylistic matter more than a grammatical one. Kafka is not the best choice for a bedtime story, though I like him. I sometimes dream in the style of an author I've just been reading. I had a few Charles Dickens dreams with long, intricate plots and millions of characters. Lately I do language study at night, and I guess that explains my German sentence-structure nightmare!

I had a really eerie dream-experience years ago. I dreamed that I was in Spanish class and the professor was asking me to respond to a question I did not understand. So, in the dream, I became very uncomfortable and embarrassed, so much so that the whole classroom started to quiver and shake and make strange booming sounds. I woke up and the shaking and the sounds were real.   That was the only time in my life I have felt an earthquake (here in NJ where we don't have many). I found out at work later that I hadn't imagined it. It was very strange that it was instantly incorporated into the dream I was having at the time.

EDIT: I just looked this up: it was January 10, 1992 3.2 magnitude

Edited by meramarina on 29 January 2010 at 3:41am

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Warp3
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 Message 22 of 28
28 January 2010 at 8:10pm | IP Logged 
meramarina wrote:
It was very strange that it was instantly incorporated into the dream I was having at the time.


Something like that has happened to me a few times before. I've been a dream and something in the dream will start making an odd sound (which may or may not make sense in that particular dream, depending on object what my brain decides to attach the sound to). Then I'll notice that this noise sounds very similar to the noise my alarm clock does. Wait...{wakes up to the alarm clock beeping} It is a rather odd experience.
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victor-osorio
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 Message 23 of 28
28 January 2010 at 9:31pm | IP Logged 
nowneverends wrote:
I also
thought I was speaking German much better than normal (and was actually conversing
with someone) one time while intoxicated. I wonder if both of these come down to loss
of
inhibition, or if one or both is because of a change in perception (I merely think I am
speaking more fluently than normal).


I had that feeling once at a party. People around me were all native speakers of
English, and even though I was able to talk with them, at the beginning of the party -I
mean, while I was still sober-, I was missing most of the details. I mean, I couldn't
catch every single word, just the most importants.

After a few drinks, when I was tipsy, I began to understand EVERY SINGLE word and to
talk quiet fluently. People told me, so I'm sure it was not my perception.

I think it has something to do with inhibitions. In fact, I have observed that if
people tells me that I'm a good speaker of English, immediately I began to talk better
and more fluently, so maybe is my self-esteem who's making the improvement or the
obstacle, in any case.

I've also heard of one guy who says that while under the effects of LSD he could easily
think in perfect in English, more fluently than normal, and once wrote an essay in
English (which is prove that he was in fact able to think in English).

Not sure what to think about that guy.

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MegatronFilm
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 Message 24 of 28
29 January 2010 at 3:39am | IP Logged 
I dream in Spanish frequently, but ever since I seriously started studying French, things have gotten really
interesting. I once had a dream in which I was comparing French and Spanish grammar. A couple of nights ago, I
woke myself up from talking in my sleep. I was speaking English, French and Spanish!

Dreaming in foreign languages is great because in such a calm state I can understand mistakes I've made and how
I can improve. I know it sounds weird, but my dreams have actually helped me in the learning process.


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