My Own Personality Shifting Experience

In my research paper, I'm researching the connection between languages and personalities. 

Many studies that were done in the field support the idea that bilingual people tend to have different personalities when speaking in a different language. In his article "For Three Years, I Spoke Only Hebrew to My Daughter" Scheiber is talking about his own experience with being bilingual, and how he thought that he could “pass down” the Hebrew he learned from his native Hebrew speaking Israeli mother, to his daughter. 

“I am funny in English. Or at least I have my moments. Not so in Hebrew” (Scheiber, 2014) is one of the examples Scheiber gives to emphasize the differences he feels about how his personality shifts between English and Hebrew. He said that this happens as a result of him being colder, stricter, and somewhat harsher when speaking in Hebrew then in English. 

As for my personal experience with personality shifting when switching a language, the thing that was pointed out to me several times both by native English speakers, and even by native Hebrew
speakers is that I get “heated” easier, and faster. One case I remember very clearly was from a few weeks ago when I was on my way to a meeting with my academic advisor and was talking Hebrew over the phone with my dad. I told him about a very annoying phone call I had to make to my Israeli
bank that for some reason blocked my credit card. I remember I was very angry about it and my tone of speaking was probably aggressive because as I went into my academic advisor’s office she thought we were about to have a very heated conversation due to my very visible feelings. But for me, the second that I switched the language from Hebrew to English I was instantly calm as if nothing happened. 

From time to time I talk in my sleep, and when I do that, I do it in my native language- Hebrew. I can’t recall I did that in the morning, but my roommate pointed out to me more than once that even though she can’t understand what I’m saying, it sometimes sounds like I’m having a bad dream. I feel like this is the same personality shifting phenomenon that I experienced like in the example I brought before, but in this case, I don't think that I was angry or upset, it’s just that I get more heated as a result of passion.

References:
Scheiber, N. (2014, April 22). For three years, I spoke only Hebrew to my daughter. I just

gave it up. Here's why. Retrieved from https://newrepublic.com/article/117469/why-i-stopped-speaking-my-daughter-hebrew