What language do you dream in?

[topdog]

I'm curious to know what language Recom members dream in. Please choose the one that you MOST OFTEN dream in.

[screw3d]

This is one of the weirdest posts I've seen! Umm.. how about.. I don't dream in languages?? :p

[qedx]

sometimes in malay, sometimes in english and when i feel really depressed i dream in pictish

[luke]

sometimes i dream in java but most of the time in qbasic ........................................................

do u buy that?

[silverblue]

Most of the time, I think dreams are more visual than anything... well.. that's my personal experience though. Most of my dreams are non-lingual... it's like everyone communicates in ESP or stg! hahaha!

But anyway, here are some interesting thoughts...

1) In what language does a baby (who isn't old enuf to learn how to speak) dream in? Or how about babies who babytalk? Do they dream in their own mum-mum language? ;)

2) Do deaf people ever get dreams that 'speak' or are their dreams merely pictures?

3) Have any of u Comp Sci guys ever dreamt in binary codes before?? lol!
That'd be one hell of a dream man!! :P

4)

[littlebigone]

speaking of babies and dreams. Does anyone remember your first memories? Try to go back as far as you can. Does you earliest memory come after your ability to understand and use language or is it before? My point is do you remember in words or in pictures?

[asterixius]

Arabic,French

[silverblue]

Does you earliest memory come after your ability to understand and use language or is it before?

I see where u are coming from... but I don't think that memory is dependent on language. Is it implied that we cannot remember things if we don't know how to speak? I think that even if we haven't acquired a language yet, we still have our own intepretations about what's going on around us and we still have the ability to think. Mebbe it's more like an instinct rather than words...

[qedx]

err seriously?

earliest childhood memories? i would say back to when i was 3 or 4. i remember reading :P

[mpalanieppan]

I suppose memory is not dependent on ability to speak in a language. But certainly, thinking needs language. How can one think at all without language? I cannot imagine....

[wwhong]

i do think some people can think in pictures. i myself think in pictures sometime, easier sometime. but of course u need language to be able to transfer your thinking and ideas to others.

hmm..wat language used in sleep talk, i used to sleep talk in chinese and cantonese, hakka and hokkien (that's what my roommate told me, i myself have no idea at all) but now seems like i start to sleep talk in english , haha.....

anyway, does anyone know why one would sleep talk?

[angie]

i don't know how to explain this scientifically. but do you remember what you're trying to say in your dreams? sometimes we actually speak that out! once i actually found myself waking up screaming. haha and when i sleep with an empty stomach, my sis will probably hears me munching the air!

and...about memory and language. other than language, sight, touch, hearing, smell, taste and maybe the sixth sense helps too. 'ah! the music remember me of something!' does this sound familiar to you guys? :)

[angie]

i don't know how to explain this scientifically. but do you remember what you're trying to say in your dreams? sometimes we actually speak that out! once i actually found myself waking up screaming. haha and when i sleep with an empty stomach, my sis will probably hears me munching the air!

and...about memory and language. other than language, sight, touch, hearing, smell, taste and maybe the sixth sense helps too. 'ah! the music remember me of something!' does this sound familiar to you guys? :)

[Avangard]

Eer... i dont really remember about the language i use in my dream, But i am sure that the sound i heard in my dream came with multiple language.... smtime in BM, Eng, .. German?, But i have a technics where you can rememeber your dream almost 99%. Try this out.

1) before you going to bed try to set your mind to remember the dream you will have.

2) when you open your eyes for the first time from the sleep, ( the first blink) close you eyes again and quickly record your dream into your brain.

He he , most of the time, when i opened my eyes, i tend to take extra sleep, that's why i dont remember my dream much, & that's why i always late for bus. Ha ha

[Avangard]

Eer... i dont really remember about the language i use in my dream, But i am sure that the sound i heard in my dream came with multiple language.... smtime in BM, Eng, .. German?, But i have a technics where you can rememeber your dream almost 99%. Try this out.

1) before you going to bed try to set your mind to remember the dream you will have.

2) when you open your eyes for the first time from the sleep, ( the first blink) close you eyes again and quickly record your dream into your brain.

He he , most of the time, when i opened my eyes, i tend to take extra sleep, that's why i dont remember my dream much, & that's why i always late for bus. Ha ha

[taufiq]

i really like to learn arabic
because it's a very beautiful language
especially the sentence structure
and when bulding a meaningful sentence
sometimes it might carries a few meaning in just one sentence

[taufiq]

i really like to learn arabic
because it's a very beautiful language
especially the sentence structure
and when bulding a meaningful sentence
sometimes it might carries a few meaning in just one sentence

[sim_min]

i don't know what language i dream in, maybe dream-language! :twisted:

but it's funny that, there was one time my japanese fren went to travel with me, so we talked in english all the time in this trip....there was one night, i suddenly heard she dream in English, she said:" break up! break up!" ehm....must be persuading her fren to break up with her boyfren!! :twisted: nyek nyek nyek!

[sim_min]

i don't know what language i dream in, maybe dream-language! :twisted:

but it's funny that, there was one time my japanese fren went to travel with me, so we talked in english all the time in this trip....there was one night, i suddenly heard she dream in English, she said:" break up! break up!" ehm....must be persuading her fren to break up with her boyfren!! :twisted: nyek nyek nyek!

[emubleeeem]

i dun really remember wat language i use in my dream.. but i think it is multi-language.. bm+mandarin+hokkien+teo chew+english(all the languages i know) :oops:
but most of the time it is.. hokkien, oh ya it is hokkien my 1st language :lol:

[emubleeeem]

i dun really remember wat language i use in my dream.. but i think it is multi-language.. bm+mandarin+hokkien+teo chew+english(all the languages i know) :oops:
but most of the time it is.. hokkien, oh ya it is hokkien my 1st language :lol:

[luke]

this might be slightly off-topic but can someone please arrange the following occurences according to the level of effectiveness/influence that a language has to one's life:

A- dreaming in that language
B- thinking in that language
C- talking to oneself using that language
D- blurting something in that language (utterances like "opocot", "damn", "kuso" etc etc)

this is not a quiz. I'm asking b/c I want to know ... anyone has any idea?

[luke]

this might be slightly off-topic but can someone please arrange the following occurences according to the level of effectiveness/influence that a language has to one's life:

A- dreaming in that language
B- thinking in that language
C- talking to oneself using that language
D- blurting something in that language (utterances like "opocot", "damn", "kuso" etc etc)

this is not a quiz. I'm asking b/c I want to know ... anyone has any idea?

[angie]

from less to...
D
you may say that i'm kinda easily influenced coz i tend to pick up some lines from others, from a movie maybe and just blurt it out quite offenly without any means. but this won't effect anyone i think.

A
dreaming huh! i think that depends on who we're talking to in our dreams lor!

B and C
i think they are equal coz when one is thinking really hard, he'll probably starts talking to himself.

but i'm a bit confused here, when no communication involved, the language we use while thinking, dreaming...etc. actually influence our own lives? what is life anyway?

[angie]

from less to...
D
you may say that i'm kinda easily influenced coz i tend to pick up some lines from others, from a movie maybe and just blurt it out quite offenly without any means. but this won't effect anyone i think.

A
dreaming huh! i think that depends on who we're talking to in our dreams lor!

B and C
i think they are equal coz when one is thinking really hard, he'll probably starts talking to himself.

but i'm a bit confused here, when no communication involved, the language we use while thinking, dreaming...etc. actually influence our own lives? what is life anyway?

[littlebigone]

i was thinking about this question when I thought of this age old conundrum.

Definition of sound is vibrations in the air (sound waves) that get interpreted by the brain as some kind of a signal.

So when we dream, are we really hearing things (in the dream)? I doubt that our dreaming would stimulate sound waves in the air surrounding us. If we don't hear any sound in our dreams, then is it possible to dream in any language other than sign language?

I hope I'm making sense.

[littlebigone]

i was thinking about this question when I thought of this age old conundrum.

Definition of sound is vibrations in the air (sound waves) that get interpreted by the brain as some kind of a signal.

So when we dream, are we really hearing things (in the dream)? I doubt that our dreaming would stimulate sound waves in the air surrounding us. If we don't hear any sound in our dreams, then is it possible to dream in any language other than sign language?

I hope I'm making sense.

[mpalanieppan]

This is what i learned in my cog psych class:

Events in the surrounding reaches our senses, converted into electrical signals and sent to the brain, where neurons from particular parts of the brain are involved in specific part of sense like sight, tactile etc. FOr each of the event in the world, we seem to possess an internal representation of it in our mind: eg. every time i see littlebigone in my residence hall, signals reach my senses, stimulates certain neurons in my brain that "makes" me recognize and realize that i see littlebigone. This stimulation or excitation of specific neurons is the internal representation of littlebigone in my brain. Now, if with some microscopic machinery, if we can artificially insert electrodes into my head and stimulate that specific neurons, I will "see" littlebigone, claim that i see him, even though he is not physically there. This has been performed on animals (chimpanzees) and verified - popularly known as Newsome's microstimulation experiment (Stanford Prof).

So, in the dreams, when we dream of seeing or hearing things, the explanation is that the corresponding neurons are in the excited state causing us to perceive things.

[mpalanieppan]

This is what i learned in my cog psych class:

Events in the surrounding reaches our senses, converted into electrical signals and sent to the brain, where neurons from particular parts of the brain are involved in specific part of sense like sight, tactile etc. FOr each of the event in the world, we seem to possess an internal representation of it in our mind: eg. every time i see littlebigone in my residence hall, signals reach my senses, stimulates certain neurons in my brain that "makes" me recognize and realize that i see littlebigone. This stimulation or excitation of specific neurons is the internal representation of littlebigone in my brain. Now, if with some microscopic machinery, if we can artificially insert electrodes into my head and stimulate that specific neurons, I will "see" littlebigone, claim that i see him, even though he is not physically there. This has been performed on animals (chimpanzees) and verified - popularly known as Newsome's microstimulation experiment (Stanford Prof).

So, in the dreams, when we dream of seeing or hearing things, the explanation is that the corresponding neurons are in the excited state causing us to perceive things.

[trishotiwuth]

i dream in thai and it's kinda weird becoz i speak thai only when i'm at home, with my parents. now that i'm in college and use Eng most of the time, i'm still blabbing in raw thai when i doze! perhaps this testifies the significance of first language...

[trishotiwuth]

i dream in thai and it's kinda weird becoz i speak thai only when i'm at home, with my parents. now that i'm in college and use Eng most of the time, i'm still blabbing in raw thai when i doze! perhaps this testifies the significance of first language...

[littlebigone]

...
So, in the dreams, when we dream of seeing or hearing things, the explanation is that the corresponding neurons are in the excited state causing us to perceive things.

The point I was trying to make is that there is no "real" event to stimulate these neurons when we are sleeping and dreaming. So no sound is really being produced. Thus, is it qualified to say that we hear languages when we dream.

Even if it is some set of neurons that are being stimulated, is it the same set as when we are actually hearing things when awake? For example, in real life, we hear stuff, ear drums get stimulated, passed on to the cochlea, transformed into electrical signals, goes to some part of the brain that processes memory and languages, then goes to the cognitive part of the brain for us to interpret what is going on.

My question is, is it possible that when we dream, the only thing that is going is in the cognitive part of the brain, hence there is no language actually being translated or being deciphered for us to understand. We simply know what's going on at that moment. So we don't dream in any language.

I have no idea what I'm talking about. Just think that this could be a possilbilty...hehehehe

[littlebigone]

...
So, in the dreams, when we dream of seeing or hearing things, the explanation is that the corresponding neurons are in the excited state causing us to perceive things.

The point I was trying to make is that there is no "real" event to stimulate these neurons when we are sleeping and dreaming. So no sound is really being produced. Thus, is it qualified to say that we hear languages when we dream.

Even if it is some set of neurons that are being stimulated, is it the same set as when we are actually hearing things when awake? For example, in real life, we hear stuff, ear drums get stimulated, passed on to the cochlea, transformed into electrical signals, goes to some part of the brain that processes memory and languages, then goes to the cognitive part of the brain for us to interpret what is going on.

My question is, is it possible that when we dream, the only thing that is going is in the cognitive part of the brain, hence there is no language actually being translated or being deciphered for us to understand. We simply know what's going on at that moment. So we don't dream in any language.

I have no idea what I'm talking about. Just think that this could be a possilbilty...hehehehe

[mpalanieppan]

I was trying to reply to your question of whether we can dream in any other language than sign language.

Of course you can dream in the language you speak in. What i understand is that all these stimulations of the world, when you first experience them, of course you do not have prior experience of and therefore no internal representation. But after your first experience, you certainly have an internal representation for them, since you can actually think about these experiences later. eg. talk about how certain experiences felt like. In terms of languages, you can remember the words you hear, read, how they are used etc.

More fundamentally, you know how to string together arbitrary words according to rules to form sentences and speak. All these are possible because you have internal representation of language, the words, linguistic ability - however you choose to put it, you know how to speak, use language and thus you have internal representations of it.

In dreams, it is possible that the part of the brain that is responsible for this faculty is stimulated/aroused and thus you 'feel' that you have spoken in your dreams.

In dreams, what i speculate is that all your internal representations of past events that have affected you, mental imagery of these events, matters that you have been thinking about, all of them are incoherently somehow stringed together to kind of restimulated, 'replayed', giving you a feel of real experience, at least until you become awake. Of course, language can be part of this experience.

I think interpretation of those words you hear and speak in dreams actually happen, i.e. language faculty is being used because you can remember what someone uttered in dream and say if it is scary or sth, you feel the anxiety in the dream and wake up, at least from my personal experience.

What do you mean by cognitive part of the brain anyway? Isn't the whole brain involved in cognition? I suppose it depends on your definition of cognition. But certainly you cannot separate cognition from interpretation/usage of language....

[mpalanieppan]

I was trying to reply to your question of whether we can dream in any other language than sign language.

Of course you can dream in the language you speak in. What i understand is that all these stimulations of the world, when you first experience them, of course you do not have prior experience of and therefore no internal representation. But after your first experience, you certainly have an internal representation for them, since you can actually think about these experiences later. eg. talk about how certain experiences felt like. In terms of languages, you can remember the words you hear, read, how they are used etc.

More fundamentally, you know how to string together arbitrary words according to rules to form sentences and speak. All these are possible because you have internal representation of language, the words, linguistic ability - however you choose to put it, you know how to speak, use language and thus you have internal representations of it.

In dreams, it is possible that the part of the brain that is responsible for this faculty is stimulated/aroused and thus you 'feel' that you have spoken in your dreams.

In dreams, what i speculate is that all your internal representations of past events that have affected you, mental imagery of these events, matters that you have been thinking about, all of them are incoherently somehow stringed together to kind of restimulated, 'replayed', giving you a feel of real experience, at least until you become awake. Of course, language can be part of this experience.

I think interpretation of those words you hear and speak in dreams actually happen, i.e. language faculty is being used because you can remember what someone uttered in dream and say if it is scary or sth, you feel the anxiety in the dream and wake up, at least from my personal experience.

What do you mean by cognitive part of the brain anyway? Isn't the whole brain involved in cognition? I suppose it depends on your definition of cognition. But certainly you cannot separate cognition from interpretation/usage of language....

[littlebigone]

hmmm...interesting....thanks Pala.

[littlebigone]

hmmm...interesting....thanks Pala.

[Wayne]

Besides mandarin, malay,english,i also dream in learning French,Spanish and Japanese language....
Multi-lingual person will easily survive right?
i am curious if i can take all these language course in US..
will them provide credit hours?

[Wayne]

Besides mandarin, malay,english,i also dream in learning French,Spanish and Japanese language....
Multi-lingual person will easily survive right?
i am curious if i can take all these language course in US..
will them provide credit hours?

[kennytang]

my dream doesnt consists of any language
just a mutual one
weird, right?
i wanna learn spanish n french too.

[kennytang]

my dream doesnt consists of any language
just a mutual one
weird, right?
i wanna learn spanish n french too.

[b_ronick]

never thought anyone could actually come up with poll...hahaha :lol: :lol:
something really different..never really thought about this matter..

hmmm...as far as i can remember..i think most of my dreams are in english..but i think there are times when my dreams are in another language but i can't really remember which language... :? :oops: :lol:

[b_ronick]

never thought anyone could actually come up with poll...hahaha :lol: :lol:
something really different..never really thought about this matter..

hmmm...as far as i can remember..i think most of my dreams are in english..but i think there are times when my dreams are in another language but i can't really remember which language... :? :oops: :lol:

[mercsinc]

I'm curious to know what language Recom members dream in. Please choose the one that you MOST OFTEN dream in.

is this a psycho project that you're working on or something?

[mercsinc]

I'm curious to know what language Recom members dream in. Please choose the one that you MOST OFTEN dream in.

is this a psycho project that you're working on or something?

[topdog]

is this a psycho project that you're working on or something?

it's my doctoral thesis.

nolah, i just love thinking about random stuff like this.

how come no one here dreams in malay? i don't believe that.

[topdog]

is this a psycho project that you're working on or something?

it's my doctoral thesis.

nolah, i just love thinking about random stuff like this.

how come no one here dreams in malay? i don't believe that.

[mercsinc]

oklah, i think i sometimes dream in malay. but i think most of the time its just moving pictures with no sound (dont really remember anyone talking during a wet dream...lol).

[mercsinc]

oklah, i think i sometimes dream in malay. but i think most of the time its just moving pictures with no sound (dont really remember anyone talking during a wet dream...lol).