I've been in the US for 5 years and I still dream in my native language. Does that ever change?

[Felicia]

Random question that's been on my mind: I've lived in the US for five years. I speak English all day, every day. I teach in English. I write my dissertation in English. I think in English when I'm working. But I still dream in my native language. Every single night. My dreams are in the language of my childhood, of my family, of my home. Even when the dreams are about things here — my advisor, my lab, my American friends — they're speaking my language in the dream. It's like my brain refuses to translate my subconscious.

Is this normal? Does it ever change? Will I ever dream in English?

I asked my American friends and they don't get it. They can't imagine dreaming in another language. They think it's exotic or interesting. It doesn't feel exotic. It feels like being split in two. Like part of me is still there, even though my body is here.

My dissertation is going fine. My English is fine. I function perfectly in this world. But at night, when I'm not controlling anything, I go back. I'm with my grandmother again, speaking the language she taught me, the language she still speaks even though she doesn't know I'm dreaming of her. I don't know if this is relevant to anything. Maybe I'm just tired. But it's been on my mind. This feeling of living in two worlds, of never fully leaving one even as you build a life in another.

Anyone else experience this? The split-self of being an international student? The way your brain holds onto home even when you're not trying?

 

[Lisa]

This is completely normal. Your first language is processed in different parts of your brain than later languages. It's tied to emotion, memory, childhood. It's literally wired differently.

Dreams access those deeper parts. The parts that don't care about grammar or vocabulary. The parts that just... feel.

You might eventually have English dreams. Some people do. But your native language dreams won't stop. They're not a problem. They're evidence that your brain is still connected to your earliest self.