My high school English teacher used to tell us stuff like, “Learning a foreign language can change you forever.” Despite being an obvious attempt to make. us passionate about her subject, it really is true that learning a new language can change your personality.
Later, I moved from Italy to England. Here, I started speaking and writing 10 times more English than I had ever done before. The more I spoke, the more my teacher’s prophecy was fulfilled. I wasn’t only changing: my Italian-speaking self and my English-speaking self had become two very different individuals.
Blogging is where the signs of this effect first showed. Every time I write something in Italian, my mother tongue, it leads me to profound thoughts. When I reread my old posts, I can imagine myself drinking delicious wine and lips chanting “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Misérables (悲惨世界). Whenever I blog in English, on the other hand, it’s a different story. I feel like my mind is experiencing wild adventures or sliding down rainbows.
This personality divide also started to show in different social situations. At Italian-speaking parties, I’m dressed in the normal black suit so I can mix up with other guests, careful not to make eye contact with strangers. Surprisingly, I don’t have this problem at English-speaking parties. It’s just that I feel more free, more funny whenever I speak English.
Later, I came across an interesting article from the New Republic. Over the past several decades, scientists have studied whether speaking different languages makes us any different. All their findings seem to suggest that — indeed, bilingual or trilingual people’s personalities slightly differ depending on which language they are using.
But it’s not the terms we know (or don’t know) that shape our personalities. Maybe we can have the whole Oxford Dictionary in our brain, but it isn’t until we pour all that into the ear of someone who’s willing to listen, react and respond, that language really has an impact on who we are.
【小题1】What does the underlined word “prophecy” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Impact. | B．Warning. | C．Prediction. | D．Requirement. |
| A．The author feels it easy to access deep thoughts. |
| B．The author feels a sense of wild adventure. |
| C．The author feels trapped in old memories. |
| D．The author feels a wave of profound sadness. |
| A．The method of mastering various languages. |
| B．The weaknesses of multilinguals’ personalities. |
| C．The impact of different languages on personalities. |
| D．Unique habits of bilingual or trilingual people. |
| A．Successful conversations. | B．A wide vocabulary. |
| C．Knowledge of difficult terms. | D．A talent for languages. |
