How speaking another language can change your personality

Your language probably has the biggest effect on how you perceive the world – from making decisions to how you understand sounds to how you describe and imagine colours and other phenomena.

Language bears your local culture since it is the way your people express their understanding of the world around them. This understanding can change as you learn a new language, and with this change comes a different personality. Scientists have studied this phenomenon by asking bilinguals to take personality tests in two different languages, and the results showed that different languages and cultures can have different effects on one’s personality.

Regarding this fact, one might wonder which is their true personality – the one they have developed with their mother tongue or the one developed with the second language they have learnt. For instance, if certain feelings such as guilt do not exist in one language or culture, would this person experience guilt because they have learnt a language where guilt is defined? What do you think?