I am a native American English speaker in Spain, learning Spanish.
English requests are like this: Sorry to bother you, but when you have a moment could you please X if you don't mind? Thank you
In Spanish you literally make a command statement and attach inflection (or question marks) onto it. ¿You put a coffee? Words exist to make direct translation possible, but you do not speak this way ¿Puedes poner un café, cuando tienes tiempo, si quieres?
I'm also a native English speaker living in Spain. The example you pointed out is perfect. A related question for you. You've probably noticed passive voice is more common in Spanish than in English. Do you think there is a general difference in agency between Spanish-speakers and English-speakers?
In one experiment by Fausey and Boroditsky in 2011, they got bunch of people to act like they intentionally or unintentionally broke a vase. Then they got Spanish and English participants to recall which person had broken the vase. Both were equally accurate when identifying who had acted intentionally, but English speakers did significantly better when asked who acted unintentionally. Apparently, by not being obliged to code for agency in unintentional behaviours, Spanish speakers attended less to who had actually broken the case and were less likely to recall that fact.
Yes, I'm finding that the translation between languages goes beyond word substitution. The underlying conceptional framework is different, so what you say may be taken differently than what you mean.
With agency it's as you said. In Spanish, the default is that things occur. In English, the default is that people do things (and possess things). And so I'm uncomfortable commanding you to do things in English, but in Spanish it's okay to ask that the things occur.
This leads to cultural misunderstandings and difficulties in communication besides the language barrier. Some of the most overt demonstrations of this are 1) being scolded quite disrespectfully and unprofessionally, without the scolder intending to provoke a fight or cause harm 2) being held accountable for things I have no control over (getting in trouble for catching a student stealing, A colleague getting deported due to an error made by the consulate).
And just now I'm discovering that English has a great deal larger vocabulary with many more synonyms that allow for a greater nuance in speaking and understanding. And so it is that one word in Spanish may cover several synonyms and phrasal verbs in English. ie to await and to hope are both translated as esperar. Get, put, take, wear, carry, use, arrive, have, take out, pick up, collect, get to- all come to mind.
In English you become an age. You become an emotion or bodily urge. I am 40 years old, I am scared, I am hungry
In Spanish you possess age and (many) emotional states and urges. I have 40 years, I have fear, I have hunger.
Se pone triste
Literally "he puts sad", not he acquires sad as in English
To be clear I'm not evaluating either language as superior or inferior, only noting the differences and their implications from my uni directional perspective.
Another great article. I'm glad you chose studies that show the different perspectives as to why people might have contradictory experiences when describing their personalities when speaking different languages.
I was hoping to get your perspective on some of these notes I plan to write about in the future:
Whenever we read something about the Big Five Personality Traits, we need to keep its limitations in mind. The biggest limitation is that most studies come from WEIRD (Western educated, industrialised, democratic) samples.
Some quick examples:
Using lexical method to identify traits in Chinese, factor analysis revealed 4 dimensions: (Cheung et al., 2001; Yang & Wang, 2002). Dependability, social potency, individualism/accommodation, and interpersonal relatedness. Dependability relates to neuroticism, social potency relates to extraversion, and individualism/accommodation relate to agreeableness; however, interpersonal relatedness does not relate to any of the Big Five Personality Traits.
An investigation of 11 different language groups in South Africa revealed nine underlying factors, some of which overlapped with the Big Five, but other factors, such as integrity and relationship harmony, did not (New et al., 2012).
Even though the Big Five works in many languages, most studies were in English. Openness to experience is the trait that emerges least constantly in studies conducted in other languages (Di Blas & Forza, 1998; Szirmák & De Read, 1994).
You also need to keep the reference-group effect in mind. It’s a problem with comparing these self-report measures across cultures, because people evaluate their conscientiousness by comparing themselves to local norms.
Another model that might be worth considering is the Hexaco Mode. The HEXACO Model (Ashton & Lee, 2004) includes a 6th factor — honesty and humility. Low honesty-humility is associated with The Dark Triad (Narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) and The Dark Tetrad (Narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, sadism). However, this model still shares some of the same limitations.
What are your thoughts on the Hexaco model? What are some ways we can improve the Big Five Personality Test to make it less WEIRD?
I also thought these two points might interest you since it relates to how language can change the way we think.
Colour. They did an experiment with Berinmo speakers (a language spoken in northeast Papua New Guinea) and English speakers. They had all these chips that were different hues of blues and greens, and when asked what was greener or what was more blue compared to the target chip, English speakers had different answers than the Bernie speakers even though the chips were equally distant in colour.
Smell: Jahai speakers from northern Peninsular Malaysia and southernmost Thailand had much more consensus amongst each other when describing smells than American English speakers— Americans couldn’t agree at all, it seemed. But Americans did agree more when describing colours.
The answer is complex! My primary language as an adult is English, but up to the age of 16, I spoke a lot of Romanian with my family/church. I learned Spanish in school and while living in Spain. My personality is sweetest in English, more attenuation words...but I can argue my case more adeptly in English, more nuance. Like your Russian, my Romanian and Spanish tend to be weaker now, and so I tend to be quieter/more listening focused, but when I do respond, my statements tend to be a little more firm, more black and white, less nuanced. My tone of voice can be more brusque in Romanian (courtesy of my Eastern European parents!), and a more professional tone in Spanish (likely a reflection of my teachers).
I am a native American English speaker in Spain, learning Spanish.
English requests are like this: Sorry to bother you, but when you have a moment could you please X if you don't mind? Thank you
In Spanish you literally make a command statement and attach inflection (or question marks) onto it. ¿You put a coffee? Words exist to make direct translation possible, but you do not speak this way ¿Puedes poner un café, cuando tienes tiempo, si quieres?
I'm also a native English speaker living in Spain. The example you pointed out is perfect. A related question for you. You've probably noticed passive voice is more common in Spanish than in English. Do you think there is a general difference in agency between Spanish-speakers and English-speakers?
In one experiment by Fausey and Boroditsky in 2011, they got bunch of people to act like they intentionally or unintentionally broke a vase. Then they got Spanish and English participants to recall which person had broken the vase. Both were equally accurate when identifying who had acted intentionally, but English speakers did significantly better when asked who acted unintentionally. Apparently, by not being obliged to code for agency in unintentional behaviours, Spanish speakers attended less to who had actually broken the case and were less likely to recall that fact.
Yes, I'm finding that the translation between languages goes beyond word substitution. The underlying conceptional framework is different, so what you say may be taken differently than what you mean.
With agency it's as you said. In Spanish, the default is that things occur. In English, the default is that people do things (and possess things). And so I'm uncomfortable commanding you to do things in English, but in Spanish it's okay to ask that the things occur.
This leads to cultural misunderstandings and difficulties in communication besides the language barrier. Some of the most overt demonstrations of this are 1) being scolded quite disrespectfully and unprofessionally, without the scolder intending to provoke a fight or cause harm 2) being held accountable for things I have no control over (getting in trouble for catching a student stealing, A colleague getting deported due to an error made by the consulate).
And just now I'm discovering that English has a great deal larger vocabulary with many more synonyms that allow for a greater nuance in speaking and understanding. And so it is that one word in Spanish may cover several synonyms and phrasal verbs in English. ie to await and to hope are both translated as esperar. Get, put, take, wear, carry, use, arrive, have, take out, pick up, collect, get to- all come to mind.
In English you become an age. You become an emotion or bodily urge. I am 40 years old, I am scared, I am hungry
In Spanish you possess age and (many) emotional states and urges. I have 40 years, I have fear, I have hunger.
Se pone triste
Literally "he puts sad", not he acquires sad as in English
To be clear I'm not evaluating either language as superior or inferior, only noting the differences and their implications from my uni directional perspective.
It's clear you're not evaluating either language as superior or inferior. All the observations you make are true and relatable.
Another great article. I'm glad you chose studies that show the different perspectives as to why people might have contradictory experiences when describing their personalities when speaking different languages.
I was hoping to get your perspective on some of these notes I plan to write about in the future:
Whenever we read something about the Big Five Personality Traits, we need to keep its limitations in mind. The biggest limitation is that most studies come from WEIRD (Western educated, industrialised, democratic) samples.
Some quick examples:
Using lexical method to identify traits in Chinese, factor analysis revealed 4 dimensions: (Cheung et al., 2001; Yang & Wang, 2002). Dependability, social potency, individualism/accommodation, and interpersonal relatedness. Dependability relates to neuroticism, social potency relates to extraversion, and individualism/accommodation relate to agreeableness; however, interpersonal relatedness does not relate to any of the Big Five Personality Traits.
An investigation of 11 different language groups in South Africa revealed nine underlying factors, some of which overlapped with the Big Five, but other factors, such as integrity and relationship harmony, did not (New et al., 2012).
Even though the Big Five works in many languages, most studies were in English. Openness to experience is the trait that emerges least constantly in studies conducted in other languages (Di Blas & Forza, 1998; Szirmák & De Read, 1994).
You also need to keep the reference-group effect in mind. It’s a problem with comparing these self-report measures across cultures, because people evaluate their conscientiousness by comparing themselves to local norms.
Another model that might be worth considering is the Hexaco Mode. The HEXACO Model (Ashton & Lee, 2004) includes a 6th factor — honesty and humility. Low honesty-humility is associated with The Dark Triad (Narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism) and The Dark Tetrad (Narcissism, psychopathy, Machiavellianism, sadism). However, this model still shares some of the same limitations.
What are your thoughts on the Hexaco model? What are some ways we can improve the Big Five Personality Test to make it less WEIRD?
I also thought these two points might interest you since it relates to how language can change the way we think.
Colour. They did an experiment with Berinmo speakers (a language spoken in northeast Papua New Guinea) and English speakers. They had all these chips that were different hues of blues and greens, and when asked what was greener or what was more blue compared to the target chip, English speakers had different answers than the Bernie speakers even though the chips were equally distant in colour.
Smell: Jahai speakers from northern Peninsular Malaysia and southernmost Thailand had much more consensus amongst each other when describing smells than American English speakers— Americans couldn’t agree at all, it seemed. But Americans did agree more when describing colours.
There's a great video on YouTube called The Surprising Pattern Behind Color Names Around The World
The answer is complex! My primary language as an adult is English, but up to the age of 16, I spoke a lot of Romanian with my family/church. I learned Spanish in school and while living in Spain. My personality is sweetest in English, more attenuation words...but I can argue my case more adeptly in English, more nuance. Like your Russian, my Romanian and Spanish tend to be weaker now, and so I tend to be quieter/more listening focused, but when I do respond, my statements tend to be a little more firm, more black and white, less nuanced. My tone of voice can be more brusque in Romanian (courtesy of my Eastern European parents!), and a more professional tone in Spanish (likely a reflection of my teachers).