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Dad German, mother English.
Speak German with my dad, English with my mother.
Speak German with my two brothers and English with my sister.
Never really got along with my dad, never home so never really built up any sort of meaningful relationship. Very good relationship with my mother on the other hand.
Now here comes the joke, when I speak German I can't help but going into formal/serious mode (like I would with my father) and I find it very hard to be my relaxed cheery self unless I speak English. It is like I am two different people depending on what language I speak. I also find it much easier to talk to people in English, being flirty and playful is nearly impossible for me in German, but is like second nature to me in English. I asked my siblings about this and they have similar experiences.
Anyone else familiar with this? Any medical/social behaviour studies around that has looked at this?
If you have experienced this yourself, how did you deal with it? I can't really go around just randomly talking English to people here in Germany (which is exactly what I do at parties and the like right now, but outside that setting it would make me look like a fucking mental case)
Pic unrelated eye candy I saw here yesterday.
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Also inb4 "MUH race mixing".
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I'm German and it's the same for me, too. I can only express feelings in English. Probably, because it's more expressive. Hell, I couldn't even say "Bye, have a nice day" in German before I started talking English daily.
I think German is a language of science and very exact at that.
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>>18674103
One of my friends was thinking out loud about this and was saying that it might have something to do with me growing up speaking English with females (who are more emotionally inclined) and German with males and primarily an emotionally closed, stiff and formal father at that. Then he started going of into all sort of ramblings and Freudian shit, but it still got me thinking.
Cool to hear I am not the only one anyway.
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>>18674122
Sounds very likely to me. It's fascinating what kind of influence languages can have on your expression.
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I remember reading somewhere that, yes, the environment where you learned a language will affect how you speak with the language. Unfortunately didn't save the link, but a search gives you relevant results.
https://www.google.com/search?q=language+affects+personality&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/15/science/when-an-adult-adds-a-language-it-s-one-brain-two-systems.html
>how did you deal with it?
Try going to different settings (where you feel the most comfortable) and step out of your comfort zone. Keep practicing until it becomes second nature (easier said than done, though). Maybe there are some cheery German television shows that you can learn from.
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>>18674140
I am actually seeing a girl now who I started of speaking German with, but it was all so formal and stiff that it was really crippling the relationship. Then one day I sort of jokingly said I would only be speaking English to her the rest of the day, I was so much more comfortable talking to her then. At the end of the day I confessed the reason to her. Now I speak English to her and she speaks German back to me.
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>>18674159
Makes complete sense to me. I've seen the same happening with a French(woman)/German(guy) couple and now they are married.
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