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"Seeing" the words when you speak? | ||
Tags: Synesthesia | Brain | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6051 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes  2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 1 of 38 30 July 2008 at 12:38am | IP Logged |
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When I speak and hear Spanish, I see all the words that I'm hearing or speaking in my mind very clearly, almost right in front of me. They are all colored specifically, and I don't seem to assign I color conciously when I learn a new word..it just happens. BTW, I also have something called Synesthesia (music to color), which means that I can basically see music..so that might have something to do with it.
For example, "Usted" is a marron/reddish word. "Ellos" has a yellow "e" and a black "o". "O"s are almost always black. Ojala is mostly purple. Is this is normal? Someone else has to do this as well, I know I can't be the only one. I'm afraid this is going to hurt my ability to speak Spanish... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fat-tony Nonaglot Senior Member United Kingdom jiahubooks.co.uk Joined 6141 days ago 288 posts - 441 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Russian, Esperanto, Thai, Laotian, Urdu, Swedish, French Studies: Mandarin, Indonesian, Arabic (Written), Armenian, Pali, Burmese | Message 2 of 38 30 July 2008 at 1:48am | IP Logged |
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I don't see colours but when I'm struggling for an Urdu word I often draw the word in the air in front of me to help
me remember. I wouldn't worry about colours, it's probably just a personal mnemonic. In fact, a lot of memory books, especially by Tony Buzan, recommend writing in different colours to aid memorization. Doing it automatically may give you a distinct advantage! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5995 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 3 of 38 30 July 2008 at 2:19am | IP Logged |
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That's amazing. Does it slow you down? Do you sit there and go 'Hola! WHOA, the O IS BLACK and the H is shineeeeeeeeeey?'. If it doesn't slow you down, and helps you remember, I can't imagine it being a problem.
But then again, I can't really imagine seeing multi coloured words in my mind...and seeing music. Awesome. Thom. Edited by ExtraLean on 30 July 2008 at 2:20am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6317 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 4 of 38 30 July 2008 at 4:25am | IP Logged |
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That'll be the synesthesia, yes. If it helps, Stu Jay Raj has it as well (check him out on YouTube).
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| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6051 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 5 of 38 30 July 2008 at 4:40am | IP Logged |
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I guess it doesn't slow me down...its just distracting sometimes to see all the words flying by in my mind/vision. I'm sort of concerned that it might get in the way somehow, but it seems fine so far; its just something I'll have to ignore when I'm talking. It does help with remembering, because I always remember the color of the word, even if I forget the actual word, I'll know its color, and I can use that to try and find it in my memory..but like anyone I forget of course (for example I can't remember the word for "sheets" right now but I know its a blue word).
Its strange because it only happens with Spanish and not my native English, but yeah I suppose this is part of my synesthesia and has to do with different brain structures associate with native and second languages. I just hope it doesn't impair my spoken fluency; honestly I could do without the distraction, unlike my music synesthesia which I could never do without! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6704 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 38 30 July 2008 at 5:49am | IP Logged |
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Maybe it is somewhat distracting, but it also gives you an additional mnemotechnical tool. The strange thing is it only concerns Spanish words because synaesthesia would normally be something global
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| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6152 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 7 of 38 30 July 2008 at 6:57am | IP Logged |
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Have you ever considered learning a tonal language, such as Mandarin, Cantonese or Thai? This ability would be a distinct advantage.
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| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6012 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 8 of 38 30 July 2008 at 9:22am | IP Logged |
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Don't worry -- according to VS Ramachandran, we're all synaesthetic to some extent and language wouldn't function if we weren't.
Iversen, synaesthesia is cross-linked between different sensory areas of the brain, and even in the strongest synaesthetes the strength of linkage varies between different senses. We know from studies of selective aphesia (the loss of some, but not all, language capacity) that languages learned later in life live in a different part of the brain from our first languages. So it isn't surprising to have synaesthesia affecting only second language and not native language. Irrationale, Have you ever taken part in any psychological studies into synaesthesia? Psychology departments the world over are always looking for volunteers, and Ramachandran's recent work has really opened up a lot of questions. Being involved in these studies would give you the opportunity to learn a lot about your own mind and discuss your fears and concerns with the guys working at the leading edge of the field. My (synaesthetic) former singing teacher is always the first to sign up when a new study opens -- she just finds it so interesting and rewarding. You never know when one of your observations is going to spark a whole new area of investigation. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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