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?
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.
Love this piece, it's a really thoughtful dive into the dynamics of language and culture. Something that fascinated me over the years was that I found was a lot of people who were from eastern Europe would say (in English) "can you manage to (do random thing)." To a lot of Americans that would come off as passive aggressive or even snide, but of course it wasn't meant to, it was just the way that they'd learned to construct the question in English.
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?
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.
Love this piece, it's a really thoughtful dive into the dynamics of language and culture. Something that fascinated me over the years was that I found was a lot of people who were from eastern Europe would say (in English) "can you manage to (do random thing)." To a lot of Americans that would come off as passive aggressive or even snide, but of course it wasn't meant to, it was just the way that they'd learned to construct the question in English.
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).