My native tongue is also German, and I can confirm your statements.
Well, it’s just anecdotal evidence, but here are my observations:
When I’m writing text in English, I take more time to express my thoughts, rewriting passages until I think they actually express what I mean. This might make my statements more precise and thought-through than otherwise. I have especially noticed that effect on IRC: While, when I’m in a German channel, I just write my thoughts down as they come, in #lesswrong, when I’m trying to make a point, writing stuff takes longer, and the discussion might have already flown on once I’m ready for submitting my ponderings.
When I’m writing text in English, I take more time to express my thoughts...
I think that I might be an outlier in that respect.
I was really bad in school (or didn’t care / couldn’t deal with the setting (probably complex reasons)) which resulted in a noticeable deficit when it comes to punctuation and spelling in German. Which would result in a lot of criticism and ridicule and therefore caused me to largely avoid textual discussions in German.
So how come I ended up taking part in English discussions instead?
A relevant fact here is that the first online game I began to play, back in the year 2000, was mainly played by people from the U.S. and Australia. I played it for over 5 years. In addition to my basic knowledge gained at school, that time allowed me acquire a vocabulary and reading comprehension that would serve as a plateau for reading more advanced English content and later books.
The result was that I ended up with good enough English to feel confident to take part in some online discussions. Most of that confidence came from the fact that English wasn’t my first language. It was an excuse that I didn’t have when writing German.
My German punctuation and spelling is still bad. But I am planning on improving it up to the level that is necessary to write quickly and accurately. That is not a priority though. Math is more important.
So you might actually take more time to express your thoughts in English. But due to the above I am not sure if that is true for me as well. Another reason I doubt this is that not thinking things through is generally one of my biggest shortcomings. But I am trying to fix that.
My native tongue is also German, and I can confirm your statements.
Well, it’s just anecdotal evidence, but here are my observations:
When I’m writing text in English, I take more time to express my thoughts, rewriting passages until I think they actually express what I mean. This might make my statements more precise and thought-through than otherwise. I have especially noticed that effect on IRC: While, when I’m in a German channel, I just write my thoughts down as they come, in #lesswrong, when I’m trying to make a point, writing stuff takes longer, and the discussion might have already flown on once I’m ready for submitting my ponderings.
I think that I might be an outlier in that respect.
I was really bad in school (or didn’t care / couldn’t deal with the setting (probably complex reasons)) which resulted in a noticeable deficit when it comes to punctuation and spelling in German. Which would result in a lot of criticism and ridicule and therefore caused me to largely avoid textual discussions in German.
So how come I ended up taking part in English discussions instead?
A relevant fact here is that the first online game I began to play, back in the year 2000, was mainly played by people from the U.S. and Australia. I played it for over 5 years. In addition to my basic knowledge gained at school, that time allowed me acquire a vocabulary and reading comprehension that would serve as a plateau for reading more advanced English content and later books.
The result was that I ended up with good enough English to feel confident to take part in some online discussions. Most of that confidence came from the fact that English wasn’t my first language. It was an excuse that I didn’t have when writing German.
My German punctuation and spelling is still bad. But I am planning on improving it up to the level that is necessary to write quickly and accurately. That is not a priority though. Math is more important.
So you might actually take more time to express your thoughts in English. But due to the above I am not sure if that is true for me as well. Another reason I doubt this is that not thinking things through is generally one of my biggest shortcomings. But I am trying to fix that.