Dreaming in another language
By Peter on Apr 16, 2009 in Linguistics
Last night I found Spanish-dubbed versions of a couple of American television shows online, and I was watching them while doing laundry. I was doing this until about 1am, when I crashed and fell asleep. I don’t remember much about what I dreamt, except that everyone in the dream, including me, was speaking Spanish. Sort of. Some of it was Spanish. Some of it was gibberish that my mind made up and pretended to be Spanish. I think this was because I still am not good at comprehending spoken Spanish, so that’s what it sounds like to my mind. This is the first time I’ve had a dream that wasn’t in my native tongue, and now I’m curious if this is common for language students.
Has anyone else ever had a dream in another language? Tell me about it.
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Oh yeah. :)
I remember dreaming in French. I think it happened a few years ago so I don’t quite remember the details that well. I think it was some kind of “action movie” type of dream and I even remember one girl telling me something in French and using a word for some object (I don’t remember what it was, but it sounded like a French word). Then, later, I woke up and remembered it and looked it up on a dictionary and it was totally not what it was called. So, I had just come up with some word. Too bad I don’t remember what it was.
Another thing I remember from a dream was when I dreamt of a book title “La vie après la mort”- don’t ask me, it was a weird dream – and I pronounced it like “mor” in the dream but a few months later I actually somehow came across that word again to find out it’s actually “morte” so it should be pronounced “mort” instead. Well, dreams are tricky, I guess.
I think I have dreamt quite a bit in other foreign languages as well. I for sure have dreamt in English too. :)
It’s just most of the time I would forget it.
lyzazel | Apr 16, 2009 | Reply
I dream quite often in Spanish, but that’s quite normal. The thing is, if you spend a huge amount of time on a language (or any other subject) that becomes something important for you. Our brain prcesses important or weird things at night, so no wonder we dream in our target language!
Ramses | Apr 16, 2009 | Reply
I frequently dream in Esperanto- that is to say, the dream characters are capable of conversing with me and with one another in that language.
I have also experienced a dream where my mind constructed senseless dialogs based a foreign language that I do not speak- I once dreamed in a false “American Sign Language”. I understood the meaning of everything that was signed to me, but obviously the gestures were manual gibberish.
Benjameno | Apr 16, 2009 | Reply
When I first started learning Japanese, I remember having dreams in Japanese at the very beginning.
thomas | Apr 16, 2009 | Reply
My first foreign language dream:
I was in a dark room, possibly a basement. In front of me, facing me, floated a giant wolf’s head.
It spoke Spanish.
Saleem | Apr 17, 2009 | Reply
I think that most language students dream in foreign languages because the brain cells keep firing up in their sleep. I used to dream in written Hebrew when studying the bible and in math when I was teaching it! Solving stupid exercises is the worst kind of sleep I know of… I was impressed by Trelawney memoirs: he said that Persian is the most beautiful language in the world and I dreamt in Persian: I don’t know a word of it, but in my dream it sounded like Cicero (I had studied the eloquent pro Milone). It is interesting in preceding comments that we all seem to supply creative answers to what we don’t know.
claude lambert | Apr 18, 2009 | Reply
I have done this with French and I think that I also fill in the bits I don’t know with gibberish. I am also learning Catalan but I don’t think I have dreamt in it yet!
Jim
Jim Morrison | Apr 21, 2009 | Reply
Hello,
When I dream in english it has to do with people that speak it, like when I went to college in the US.
In Japanese has to be in a japanese setting and is still bad japanese.
In spanish… well it was my L1 until I replaced with english.
Last night while listening a podcast in japanese, not fully aware I was understanding the whole thing with no effort, is kinda difficult to explain… quite like magic!
just listening, no thinking, no effort, sleeping and resting.
Andresito君 | Apr 21, 2009 | Reply
Btw, like claude says,
yeah I solve physics problems, find ratios, work on some operators algebra… nothing specific just mind working in a funny way. Those get me tired anyways, I feel like I didn’t sleep good.
Andresito君 | Apr 21, 2009 | Reply
I’ve had dreams in every language I’ve learned…except for Latin. I tend to dream in French when I’ve been doing a lot of reading in French, or watching French films.
It sure beats working overtime in a store during Christmas rush, dreaming I’m at work and waking myself up saying, “Is this cash or charge?”
My first foreign-language dream was in French. I was in third-year high school French at the time and had recently attended a “Weekend en francais,” speaking only French for 2 days. I don’t remember the dream, but I do remember making a lot of mistakes in French, and being aware I was making them!
I also talk in my sleep, usually in English, but my husband has heard me speaking French on occasion. Nothing romantic: I was teaching at the time, and he said I sounded like I was lecturing my students on the past tenses. I could literally teach that class in my sleep!
I’ve also had the occasional dream in Spanish or German. I once had a dream that included both, plus French. It involved calling the Linguistics Hotline at MIT and asking what was the difference between grammar and syntax. I think I asked the question in French, and the person on the other end answered in German. I asked him in German to answer in French, and he answered in Spanish. Then I woke up. (I was taking classes in all three languages at the time).
Kathryn | Apr 30, 2009 | Reply
@Kathryn: I aspire to be so studious as to start having dreams in several languages like you. =)
@Andresito君: Hopefully I won’t dream anything that makes me more tired like that. I can’t say I’ve worked out math or physics equations in my sleep, but I have written code in my sleep.
@Saleem: That’s pretty scary!
peter | Apr 30, 2009 | Reply
Helo!! Am dreaming too!!
I’ve been planning hard what to do this summer and I got several suggestions related to trips and sports, which got me thinking twice as I’ve had those for many summers already. I want something different and what pops up in my head is the cursos inglés verano. I’m living in Korea specifically in Seoul. I’m not familiar with summer courses here, nor in any other places. So perhaps anyone of you can share me helpful information? I really need it. Thank you!
Ninia | May 19, 2009 | Reply
I’ve dreamt in Spanish a few times; like yours, when I didn’t have enough Spanish to say/understand something, it was just gibberish (but gibberish that my dream-self understood). I also dreamt once in Russian, which is very odd as I don’t speak any Russian at all. It was entirely in ‘understandable’ gibberish except for the single phrase I know – “menja zavut *blank*” meaning “My name is *blank*.”
Dan | May 31, 2009 | Reply
When I first moved to China I dreamt in Chinese a few times.
Once I remembered what I had said in the dream and repeated it to my teacher… and it was actually a coherent sentence, far far more advanced than my level of Chinese at the time.
I figured that my subconscious had figured out Chinese, before my conscious brain had any idea what I was saying.
Colin | Jul 27, 2009 | Reply
I have had dreams in which the other person was using Costa Rican Sign Language (I learned Costa Rican Sign Language while living abroad for a semester) while being closed-captioned in French at the same time. I have also had dreams that I could speak well in another language (something like German or Russian–it was a language that I did not know in real life). Many times, I dream in English closed-captioning or I simply can understand spoken English perfectly! Also, I dream in American Sign Language (I am deaf in real life) and other times I can understand what people are saying without words being spoken (like I can sense what they are saying). Sometimes I have dreams in Spanish (I have studied Spanish for many years). Other times I dream in languages that I only studied for a few months such as French or Italian.
Kelly | Nov 8, 2009 | Reply
I had 2 dreams that included a foreign language (italian) I mean the whole dream was in english but it had a word or a phrase in italian e.g. i had a dream about this guy and he was playing a song called “scherzo de notte” i had no idea what it meant so i looked it up and i found out that it meant “the joke of the night” and then i remembered that we were talking about jokes the night before i had this dream about him
the other dream happened after talking to a guy that i really like and it was about having a message from a girl called “amore”
so i looked it up and i found out that it meant “love”
so i think this whole dreaming in another language is quite weird
Ann | Jan 25, 2010 | Reply
Hi,
This is really interesting to hear what you all have to say about dreaming in foreign languages. I have been having dreams in Russian since I began taking Russian. At first they were pretty basic, then when I did a program over the summer where I was speaking only Russian for two months, my dreams got much more frequent (sometimes several nights in a row) and began getting more complex.
I used to wake up understanding most of what I had said in my dreams. Now that I am more advanced in my Russian studies, I will often times wake up remembering what I said, but not understand a word or two that was said. Oddly enough, when I look the words up, they are actual words and make sense according to the situation in the dream.
Has anyone else had similar experiences? I find this so puzzling yet amazing that our minds can dream in foreign languages to the extent that they can.
-Kathleen
Kathleen | Feb 2, 2010 | Reply
Hi! My native language is Portuguese, I can speak English, Spanish and French (the two latter are very close to Portuguese, and therefore easier to learn), and I’ve been studying Russian.
- I remember dreaming a lot in English, and I always understood the things that were said.
- I’ve never dreamed in Spanish or French, languages that I’ve started to learn recently (two years ago).
- I’ve started to learn Russian this very year, but strangelly I have already dreamed in it.
The dream was the weirdest thing ever: I listend to a russian guy telling some friends of him that he was having problems trying to close a door. I could understand what they said, but I couldn’t talk, then I asked my husband (who speaks Russian like a native speaker, though he’s not) to explain him how to do it.
Weird, isn’t it?
Clarissa | Feb 3, 2010 | Reply
Hi,
I dreamt in chinese last night and I dont speak a word of it. Im not taking Chinese classes and I dont really like Chinese food.
Someone told me it was because I was chinese in my previous life but I dont believe in that stuff. Another person told me it was because I am going to marry a chinese guy…I hope not because my fiance is African and I love him alot.
Does anyone know what this means?
Ni How from Down under | Feb 8, 2010 | Reply
hey
i’m a bilingual gaelic/english speaker and i speak fairly good french. i also have basic spanish, used to take swedish lessons and am now learning russian.
dreaming in french isn’t that unusual since i often think in french but i have several times dreamt in swedish and understood everything. unfortunately when i wake up i have no memory of this understanding. just recently i had a dream in russian. at least the person i was speaking to actually speaks russian in real life because often people in my dreams speak languages which in reality they cannot.
eili cooper oliver | Feb 11, 2010 | Reply
Hi,
you could join the forum on http://www.dreamviews.com/.
Maybe it will be very interesting for you
jm
johanna meixner | Mar 6, 2010 | Reply
I have never learned or studied Latin, but last night I had a dream where a woman’s thoughts were being amplified to the point where I could hear them as if through a loudspeaker. The words that were spoken as she looked at me were: “Come closer . . .closer. . .” and then, after I put my face in whispering distance of her face, she said, “Dominae.”
As soon as I woke up this morning I looked it up and the Latin translation means “Lady” or “Mistress.” WTH?
Justyn | May 17, 2010 | Reply
Your dream doesn’t “mean” anything silly. It’s just your subconscious.
Retnan | Jun 23, 2010 | Reply
well i feel right at home with all of you out there.Wish that all of us could get together and talk.I’ve done the same thing only no dream at times just wait up hearing myself talking in a foreign language.I just found this site by accident.I just sit and thought about it and i got you all.email me and let me know about you.sunwater222@yahoo.com
gracie C.Parrish | Jul 29, 2010 | Reply
hi,
i refuse to believe that dreams mean nothing. if this were true how can you dream sentances etc in a language you have never heard before.
Like a previous post i too, dreamed of being in a family of chinese people speaking the language fluently, even though i cant understand a word. My opinion is that it was a past life you are dreaming of in this case.
Anyone dream about the future and get it correct? this happens to me also now and then. not as dramatically as some TV programs though.
dodge2k7@hotmail.co.uk
dodge | Aug 26, 2010 | Reply
I believe my dreams are the most crazy of all, my mind picks up the most insignificant things that happens during the day and makes a whole story about it, I dreamed with a german word for a week about 2 months ago, i would never ever ever dream in german, i don’t even know german, my native language is spanish but i do speak english. I dreames with the word bunderstag, bunderssatt and bunderstrecht im not shure if i worte them right, my question is why in the world would i dream with german federal law and constitution (that’s the meaning of the words). Im 15, WTF? It maybe related to my history class, but we never saw such word, we only saw the word diet wich is the german legislature i think, i dont quite remember.
nicolas | Sep 18, 2010 | Reply
Hi, I had a dream in what I think was meant to be German but as I dont understand the language my dream had sub-titles. It wasn’t based in Germany either. I was fighting 4 evil villains who had special powers in a log cabin in a clearing in a woods….
Gavin Hesketh | Sep 20, 2010 | Reply
lyzazel: Just so you know, you were actually right in your dream about the french pronunciation; It should be “La vie après la mort,” spoken with a silent T (“mor”). Lots of interesting stories here.
Hannah | Dec 17, 2010 | Reply
i just had a dream in english, but giant centaurs were riding across the world with banners of their countries and some native words. I remember seeing french, spanish, and italian of some sort. It was pretty cool to me since I’m actually learning Japanese and only know tidbits of the other three.
Rose | Dec 13, 2011 | Reply