What language do you think in?

"If you can speak two languages fluently, what language do you think in?"

Being a bilingual person (completely fluent in English and in French), I often get asked this question. When asked this question, they have absolutely no idea in what an awkward position they put me in, because I then start trying to think about something, try to figure out if at that moment I'm thinking in English or in French, but then realise that I'm not actually thinking about something! However, when I ask them back in what language they think in, they answer 'in French of course!' or any other language that happens to be there mother tongue, making it seem so obvious...


So here is my theory about what language one thinks in:

If I take myself as an example, I grew up in London, so my mother tongue is English. You'll then immediately jump to the conclusion that I speak English therefore I think in English. It is a yes/no situation, because my father speaks English and French Patois, and my mother speaks English and German. So I also grew up with these different dialects, being able to understand what they say, as well. Then again, I moved to France when I was young and was put into another situation where thinking, writing and speaking had to be done differently!

It was only when I arrived in secondary school that one of my teachers asked me what language I thought in. I asked her why such a question, and was told that I tend to do things differently compared to the other French pupils when something was asked in one language or the other. Since then, this "language thinking" question has triggered this curiosity in myself, leading me to try realising if I think in French or English.

This is what I came up with:

• I have a tendancey to think in English more easily when concentrating on a French task
• I tend to think in French when I get cross (cursing in French especially!)
• Remarkably, I find it easier to count or calculate in German!

Now that is where it starts to get strange! Where does the counting in German come from?
I think that it is all due to habits that we take on from our parents. My mother, when it comes to counting our calculating, always thinks (aloud) in German. Just by this example, thinking in a language is actually copied from a parent.

But what actually gets me thinking is do we actually need a language to think?