Emotional differences between languages

a fun fact about languages

I realize that I have a different personality when I speak different languages. For example, I am more outgoing in English, more cautious in Mandarin, and less capable in German (because my German sucks, haha). Of course, that also depends on topics we chat and people we hang out. However, this didn’t drive me to read research paper about this. It is this story that happened one day that made me dig into this topic.

I was having lunch with my colleagues in an Asia restaurant, where they served a really nice appetizer for free. It was so nice that we’re thinking about asking for another one (for free). Then, my colleague talked to the waitress in English although they both speak Chinese. We just found it funny because he felt embarrassed to ask for another one in Chinese. In the end, the waitress gave us another one for free, and asked us to come more often.

So I searched for this topic online and found this that discusses the emotional differences between languages. Maybe you can relate it when you imagine yourself speaking ‘I love you’ in different languages to you parents.