The Museum of Knowledge is often asked what happens in cases whereby a linguist is fluent in several languages? Does this linguist think in their Mother tongue? What is the main language a multiple fluent linguist thinks in instinctively?
Usually it is the language a person is native in but in many cases linguists think in the language they speak at that time. For example the team at Museum of Knowledge is multilingual. If we speak in Spanish then we are thinking in that language too. Sometimes linguists of several languages speak in the language of the place they are currently residing. For instance, if a person’s native language is English but that person has lived in Italy for years with no or little interaction with his/ her native language whatsoever; there is a high possibility that the person’s thought processes will be in Italian.
For linguists at the Museum of Knowledge as we are always switching between several languages and we are been speaking several languages all our lives, it is no problem for our minds to adjust to French, Spanish or Italian and just not think about it!