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Language Colors | ||
Tags: Synesthesia | Foreign Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| iknowchristalen Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 5347 days ago 20 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, Japanese | Message 1 of 31 09 April 2010 at 2:47pm | IP Logged |
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So, I am posting this because I am dying to find out if anyone has the same experience as me. Every language is associated with a very specific color in my head. It only takes at most 10 min. of listening to tell you what the color is. English is black, German is cherry red, dutch is canary yellow, japanese is bright teal blue, polish is olive green, french is a very light blue metallic, hawaiian is bright to muddy orange, russian varies from burgundy to midnight blue, arabic is varying shades of peach to gold ect... I try to use these colors to separate the different languages in my head. So if any of you have colors too or if you think I'm just losing it let me know ;-)
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| ehabsa Diglot Newbie United States languagecurrent.com Joined 5348 days ago 22 posts - 26 votes Speaks: Arabic (Levantine)*, Modern Hebrew Studies: Persian | Message 2 of 31 09 April 2010 at 4:18pm | IP Logged |
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Do you have this color association with other objects? For me different languages tend to
evoke more of an emotional response than an imagery. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Delodephius Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Yugoslavia Joined 5407 days ago 342 posts - 501 votes  Speaks: Slovak*, Serbo-Croatian*, EnglishC1, Czech Studies: Russian, Japanese | Message 3 of 31 09 April 2010 at 7:12pm | IP Logged |
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When I was a kid I had this colour association for days of the week (if I remember correctly Tuesday was blue, Wednesday was pink, Thursday was green, Friday was dark blue, I don't recall the rest) and also months (mostly by which colour prevailed like winter months were in different shades of grey and white, spring months were green, summer months yellow and autumn months brown and orange).
I associate German with dark green, French with blue, Polish with light pink, Russian with black, Chinese with red, Arabic with green, English with brown. Some languages I associate with more than one colour like Slovak which is blue and white. Why I associate languages with colour is I think maybe because I imagine a certain situation where the language is used. For example, Russian is black because when someone mentions the Russian language I imagine Dostoevsky in dark room writing a novel. Or when someone says French I imagine Napoleon and his troops wearing blue coats. I think this comes from my childhood. Emotions too can be associated with certain colours so maybe there is connection here. Edited by Delodephius on 09 April 2010 at 7:15pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| pohaku Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5655 days ago 192 posts - 367 votes Speaks: English*, Persian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 4 of 31 09 April 2010 at 8:21pm | IP Logged |
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iknowchristalen--
It sounds like you might not be aware that your experience falls under a broad class of such phenomena known as synesthesia. The American neurologist and author Oliver Sacks has written much about this in his very popular books. It's often discussed in relation to music; there are composers, for example, who have associated musical notes or keys or instruments with color. There are people who hook colors to various numbers. And synesthesia doesn't have to be a relationship with color; I think it can involve a mixing of any two (or more?) senses. Before synesthesia became relatively well-known in recent decades, those who possessed this gift often did think they were losing it. Now they know otherwise. I've never heard of your language-color connection, though. It might be of interest to Oliver Sacks or other neurological researchers. Edited by pohaku on 10 April 2010 at 7:10am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6772 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 5 of 31 10 April 2010 at 5:59am | IP Logged |
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I have colour-grapheme synesthesia, so I see colours when I think of or read letters and numbers. However, I don't
associate languages themselves with colours (though the name of any language will have a mix of colours according to its letters). When I was a kid, it was so strong that I would occasionally say "six" when I meant "green", for example. As Pohaku notes, synesthesia takes many forms, but it's always an involuntary connection between some kind of sensory stimulus (visual, aural, taste, or olfactory) and some kind of abstract concept (letters, time, musical pitch, etc.). Edited by Captain Haddock on 10 April 2010 at 6:01am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5426 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 31 10 April 2010 at 7:19am | IP Logged |
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Nope, then again I don't associate color with much :\
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| iknowchristalen Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 5347 days ago 20 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, Japanese | Message 7 of 31 10 April 2010 at 10:36am | IP Logged |
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No,I don't have a color association with other objects, but all roman letters and Arabic numerals have sexes associated with them: a=f b=m c=m d=m h=f i=m j=m ect. 1=m 2=f 3=m 4=f 5=m 6= m 7=f 8= m 9=m ect. Just very strange.
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| iknowchristalen Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 5347 days ago 20 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Dutch, Japanese | Message 8 of 31 10 April 2010 at 11:48am | IP Logged |
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I have been reading a few other threads on synesthesia and thought I should explain a little further. I don't always see the words "written" out in my brain in the color, but sometimes. Other times I just have it floating around in my brain, or I just think of the color. I think that the colors could have some emotional connection with the language. As Delodephius said blue for french because of the blue uniforms. I was thinking, I do recall a very famous painting of Marie Antoinette in a light blue shimmery dress that is the same color of blue that I see. Though I think for many of them that the color is a visual representation of the emotion and essence of the language as a whole. Just what I feel and that turns itself into a color. I do think though that I should try to develop it more and see if it doesn't strengthen over time.
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