[stephen_g]

That’s interesting, I basically always have a clearly English monologue going on, even while visually thinking about things or thinking about sounds or music at the same time. The monologue becomes more sparse and simple the harder I’m thinking in another way (sometimes just reducing to words of agreement or disagreement to the visualisation of something I’m designing or a route I’m planning). But then as soon as I stop doing that I just revert back to monologuing.

I know a little Spanish and a tiny bit of German and I can purposely think in those languages, but I’m way too limited in what I can express that it takes a lot of conscious effort. The really fun thing that I’m not sure is normal is that I can very easily switch my monologue to different accents which sound (as I perceive it in my mind) identical to real ones I’ve heard for long enough to replicate. I’m quite good at doing different accents in real life so I expect that’s linked.

[ascar]

The part about accents sounds interesting to me. I always believed I can't do accents because I absolutely can't fake/hear them in my head. I can even only speak my own accent with close family and switch to regular German with everyone else. I also can't hear/recall music from memory, so it's near impossible for me to sing freely, while singing along works fine.

I can imitate different voices in my head when reading a novel and I can't even comprehend how one would read and comprehend without hearing everything spoken in ones head. It's just impossible for me.

I do have a constant monologue though that is impossible to shut up. Even if I try to calm it or meditate I would think out loud "calm/meditate/don't think", so that doesn't work at all xD

I did start thinking in English at some point. Before that I would translate all English to German, think about it and translate my German thoughts to English, if I needed to say something. By now I just think in English when I'm in an English context. It feels entirely natural.

[ryukafalz]

> I can't even comprehend how one would read and comprehend without hearing everything spoken in ones head

For me it’s the inverse actually. I don’t normally hear what I’m reading in my head, I can consciously do so if I want, but more often than not that distracts me because I’m thinking about the words rather than the concepts.

The only time it’s helpful is when I need to focus on a particular word for some reason; for example, if I’m struggling to recall what it means, or if I’m programming and trying to trace where a specific variable is referenced. Keeping the sound in my mind can help in those cases.

[u2077]

> I ... always have an (...) English monologue going on (..) The monologue becomes more sparse and simple the harder I’m thinking.

This! I feel like I’ve been talking to myself (internally) my entire life, but some in this thread described their thoughts as relationships of topics and concepts, which I also experience.