Dreaming in Spanish

[Zach]

Last night I had a dream with alot of Spanish conversation. Guess I'm studying it a bit hard! ;D

[Tomisimo]

I remember when I first started dreaming in Spanish. It was neat because about the same time I started being able to speak more fluently.

[Nix]

I can't wait untill I can dream in Spanish.

[matches]

To dream in any lanuage shouldn't necessarily be a goal, as all language in dream-state is basically the same. In dream-state I can understand any and all languages, even though I recognize them in the dream, as being French, Spanish, German, Egyptian, etc. etc.
It's merely genetic memory, a throwback to a time when all languages were one language and everyone understood each other, all dream-state language is the first tongue.


Until...

[Zach]

Originally Posted by matches

To dream in any lanuage shouldn't necessarily be a goal, as all language in dream-state is basically the same. In dream-state I can understand any and all languages, even though I recognize them in the dream, as being French, Spanish, German, Egyptian, etc. etc.
It's merely genetic memory, a throwback to a time when all languages were one language and everyone understood each other, all dream-state language is the first tongue.

Erm...I'm not sure about that :P I only started dreaming Spanish phrases now that I'm learning the language. After all, dreams are just your brain's processing of events and thoughts that happened during the day, I think.

[Chorbdaddy]

I agree with Zach on this one.

[caliber1]

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I was just thinking about how cool it would be to dream in Spanish. I have not yet, but I was about to post a thread asking about it when I remembered I could search key words for it. So. . . does anyone on a fairly regular basis dream in the language that is not native to them? Just curious. I am looking forward to what some people have to say.

[Rusty]

A lot of people believe that when you dream in a foreign language you have 'arrived'. I tend to agree. You are most likely to start dreaming in a foreign language after your brain has been exercised enough to work with your well of knowledge in that language.
I know a smattering of several languages, but I've only dreamed in two - the ones I've assimilated.
In my opinion, you have to tuck away enough words and grammar to form sentences and communicate ideas in the real world before you can dream in a foreign language. How else would you follow the conversation?

[chileno]

Three months after I arrived in the US, my mom told me that woke her up in the middle of the night with my loud voice. Apparently I was dreaming, and it seemed I was having some verbal argument with someone and I was talking in English in my sleep. I have no recollection of that dream, though.

[caliber1]

That's funny. My wife told me that I woke her up last night taking about verb conjugations in my sleep. I'm obsessed!!!

[Don José]

Hi,
I used to dream in English when I had to read a lot of English stuff(?) at work, not to mention the time I spent in Australia, where hardly do you come across any Spanish native speaker.

Originally Posted by Rusty

A lot of people believe that when you dream in a foreign language you have 'arrived'. I tend to agree.

I would say that you 'are arriving'. I mean that you will keep on making your 'favorites' mistakes in your dreams, as well as in your daily life. In my case, even though being able to dream in English, neither could pass an English exam (upper-intermediate) nor write whitout mistakes. Therefore, I think that you have to go on studying - forever, if you are really a language major.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by caliber1

That's funny. My wife told me that I woke her up last night taking about verb conjugations in my sleep. I'm obsessed!!!

Not obsessed, but focused.


Just tell your wife beautiful things in Spanish, and she'll love it!

[aleCcowaN]

It's hard to say. Nobody dreams in other language than Mentalese. Your dreams may contain language-like themes, and certainly while the dreams are being edited some additions are made in an oral language.

Elements of English -an sometimes other languages- are being in my dreams since long ago, mainly as day residues (Tagenreste, restos diurnos). Also the pretty puerile sueños de realización of being speaking English fluently and effortlessly -but the English content of it is really poor, as the standards are lowered to allow the realización-.

But what gets my attention the most is how the difficulties of learning another language slip in our dream. When you are learning another language you are bounded to say what you can instead of what you want. Managing such kind of frustrations is what dreams are for, so many language themes should be in them frequently. Also, one friend of mine said that one has a different voice while speaking other language: the set of limited knowledge, different approach and use of intellectual abilities and the different social historical experience the foreign language has boiled down to, all of it has the power to modify your behaviour and makes that you produce like a slightly different you -sometimes not so slightly-. For instance, to me English is shouting all the time and I hardly can lay out a sentence without tuning up the volume in my mind, so my English personality is more aggressive and defensive than the real one. That is also a good point of learning a language: the exploration of the self, a point those who have a knack to languages often lose.

Another point is swearing in the new language. Everybody I know tend to swear in the new language because it doesn't have much of the affective load of cursing in our native language. I'll consider I've learned English not the day that I dream in quadraphonic sensurround but the day that I can curse in English with all the affection that it implies. Some people told me long time ago that being in a restaurant in Stockholm or Oslo, the waiter, as he eavesdropped them speaking in Spanish and bitching about something, he said "¡Putea! ¡Putea, por favor! ¿¡Cómo se puede vivir sin putear!?". He certainly longed it.

[caliber1]

I think I need to watch inception in Spanish : )

[Luna Azul]

I dream in Spanish, in English and sometimes in French even though I've forgotten a lot of it.. Actually, in my dreams I seem to remember French words I thought forgotten.. Go figure..

[caliber1]

See, that's what I was wondering. The amount of Spanish vocabulary I've learned, I know I've forgotten some words. I wonder if I will soon subconsciously think of them.

[Rusty]

@caliber1: I think so. I often realize that the Spanish in my dreams incorporates idioms and vocabulary that I would not normally recall on the spur of the moment. Everything we learn is retrievable, even if only subconsciously.

[wrholt]

Originally Posted by caliber1

See, that's what I was wondering. The amount of Spanish vocabulary I've learned, I know I've forgotten some words. I wonder if I will soon subconsciously think of them.

I agree with Rusty: I think so.

It's too long since I was a beginnig student for me to remember whether my dreams included remembering Spanish words while I was taking my high-school class. However, I remember dreams that included Spanish while I was in Central America for 10 weeks as an exchange student during the summer of 1976. And on the return flight, while trying to talk with my fellow exchange students, we discovered that certain "automatic" responses were coming out in Spanish rather than in English: (typical scenario: Jill: "Hey, Jack! [mumble]" Jack: "¿Cómo?"/"¿Qué dices?"

[Luna Azul]

Originally Posted by wrholt

And on the return flight, while trying to talk with my fellow exchange students, we discovered that certain "automatic" responses were coming out in Spanish rather than in English: (typical scenario: Jill: "Hey, Jack! [mumble]" Jack: "¿Cómo?"/"¿Qué dices?"

This is absolutely true. It happens more often than not. It happens to me when I go to Colombia, very frequently I reply in English without noticing. I feel embarrassed because people may think I'm showing off.. It's totally subconscious..

[wrholt]

Originally Posted by Luna Azul

This is absolutely true. It happens more often than not. It happens to me when I go to Colombia, very frequently I reply in English without noticing. I feel embarrassed because people may think I'm showing off.. It's totally subconscious..

The worst is when I'm in a context where some people speak only Engish, some people speak only Spanish, and I'm one of the few who can interpret between the two camps, such as on a couple of trips to El Salvador with my mom to visit her friends. Every now and again I would say something to my mom, she would look at me blankly, and I would realize that I had left my language switch set to Spanish....