Dreaming in a Second Language

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Sadie. My pronouns are she, her, hers, and I’m calling from San Diego.

Hi, Sadie. Welcome to the show.

Hi, Sadie.

Hi, Martha and Grant. How are you both?

Excellent. Thank you.

What can we help you with?

Okay, so I have a couple of questions, and they both have to do with my experience as an immigrant.

So here’s the first part. I immigrated to Oklahoma from the Philippines when I was my years old.

And when I started living here in the States, my dad said that we would speak only in English.

So from here on out, even at home.

And eventually it dawned on me that I had started dreaming only in English.

So there came a point when I no longer dreamed in my primary language, which is Tagalog.

And when I tell others about my experience as an immigrant, I frequently bring that up.

I tell them exactly this.

I knew that I had mastered English when I started dreaming only in English.

So the first part of my question is, how true is that statement?

Is that concept of dreaming in a new language a common phenomenon that immigrants experience as they adapt to their new home?

Does dreaming in a certain language indicate fluency of that language?

So that’s the first part of my question.

And my second question is, about a year after living in the States, I learned that the English word boondock originated from the Tagalog word bunduk, which means mountain.

And that took me by surprise because at that time I’ve already programmed myself to believe that English and Tagalog are completely separate.

So now there’s this instance of that belief being upended.

So my second question is, are there any other English roots that have their roots from Tagalog or any other Filipino dialect?

So your first question was about dreaming in another language.

And if I get this right, it’s does dreaming in another language mean that you have approached some kind of fluency in that other language, right?

A language other than your first.

You know, the first time you wake up from a dream and you realize, oh, my gosh, I was speaking in my second language.

I mean, that’s a real milestone for people learning other language, right?

Yeah.

I actually did remember, like, waking up, like, and I was excited.

I told my dad, like, I, you know, I dreamed only in English.

That’s crazy.

But I haven’t dreamt in Tagalog ever since then.

And so that’s why when I tell people about my immigrant story, like, oh, I just knew at that point I’m like a full-fledged fluent English speaker now.

Oh, that’s so interesting, Sadie.

I would put a hedge on that, though, and say that people do dream in other languages at all levels of learning a language.

So people who are only learning, cramming a bunch of phrases into the brain before going on a vacation, they also have those phrases pop up in their dreams.

Or people who haven’t spoken another language in decades may suddenly find these phrases popping up in their brains for no good reason at all.

Dreams are weird.

They’re kind of this strange inventory of our experiences, either recent or distant.

And so they mean that you have some of that language in your brain.

So that’s the good news.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that you are perfectly fluent.

Yet, it means that you’re on the path to understanding and comprehension.

So you can find, if you search any second language learner forum on the internet, you will find people talking about this.

And they all have the excitement that you have.

And that’s the wonderful part of it is the energy that it gives you when you realize, oh, I’ve passed a milestone.

This is so nice that I’m getting there.

And you sound wonderful, by the way.

How young were you when you started learning English?

So in the Philippines, we’re actually taught English in schools.

So I even started in preschool, like four years old.

I was already being taught English in school, but I spoke in Tagalog at home.

So you’ve also mentioned boondocks.

It’s true.

During the Spanish-American War, when the American Marines were in the Philippines, they did bring back boondock.

And actually during other occasions where the Americans have had soldiers stationed in the Philippines, boondock, meaning mountain, did come back.

And here in this country, it means a remote place.

If you live in the boondocks, it means you live far away or out in the boonies.

As we abbreviate it, boondocks is shortened to boonies, out in the sticks or the hills.

So yeah, that is one Tagalog word that is in English.

But there’s another word that you might be delighted to learn that is not only in English, that comes from the Philippines, that is used around the world.

It’s yo-yo.

Really?

Yes.

I didn’t know that.

Yeah, it was originally called a bandalore, if you believe it or not.

B-A-N-D-A-L-O-R-E.

It’s now archaic.

Nobody uses it.

But this guy named Pedro Flores in the Philippines brought the name to California in the 1920s.

He was bought out by a guy named Duncan.

Duncan bought the idea and the name from Flores, and now everyone calls them yo-yos around the world.

Oh, I didn’t know that that was actually a Tagalog word.

I thought like, you know, like they came upon it as a toy and somebody just coined the term yo-yo.

Okay, neat.

No language stands alone.

And I just think you really just opened up this wonderful topic here.

This is just, we could talk all day about this, but thank you, Sandy.

Really appreciate it.

Thank you. Bye.

You, our listeners, have experiences with second, third, fourth, and even beyond languages.

What have you encountered with dreaming in another language or having to work with a language that you’re not quite yet perfect in?

Share your stories, 877-929-9673, or tell us the tale in email, words@waywordradio.org.