YOU'RE NOT IMAGINING IT
Have you ever noticed that you seem like a slightly different person when you speak English? More formal, perhaps. Less funny. More cautious. Less spontaneous. Or maybe — surprisingly — more confident in certain professional situations, as if the distance from your mother tongue creates a kind of useful armour.
You are not imagining it. And you are not alone.
Researchers in psychology and linguistics have been studying this phenomenon for decades. It even has a name: the "foreign language effect."
What the research actually says
In a landmark 2014 study published in PLOS ONE, psychologist Boaz Keysar and his team found that people make different — and often more rational — decisions when thinking in a foreign language. The emotional distance created by the L2 (second language) reduces gut-level reactions and increases analytical thinking.
But it goes further than decision-making. Research by linguist Jean-Marc Dewaele has shown that bilinguals and multilinguals consistently report feeling "less emotional" in their foreign language. Swearing in L2 feels less charged. Expressing love feels more abstract. Receiving criticism feels... slightly less personal.
This isn't a flaw. It's a feature — but one you need to understand.
Three ways English changes how you come across
- You appear more reserved than you are. In French or Spanish, you might naturally use irony, hyperbole and self-deprecating humour. In English, those same impulses often flatten out — you reach for safer, simpler structures. The result: you seem more serious than you feel inside.
- Your warmth can get lost in translation. Native speakers of Romance languages tend to be expressive and physically warm. English, particularly in professional contexts, operates on different social codes. What reads as friendly directness in French can read as bluntness in English — and vice versa.
- But your credibility can increase. Here's the flip side: many non-native speakers report that English gives them a sense of professional authority they don't always feel in their mother tongue. The language of international business has its own confidence-lending structure — and you can use that deliberately.
What this means for your TOEIC or TOEFL prep
Understanding this shift matters — practically — for your exam and beyond.
In the TOEFL Speaking section, you're not just tested on vocabulary and grammar. You're assessed on your ability to convey ideas clearly and naturally. If the "English version of you" is too flat, too hesitant, or too formal, your score suffers — not because your English is wrong, but because your personality didn't come through.
In TOEIC interactions (and real workplace communication), the same applies. A colleague who sounds robotic in emails or stiff in meetings will struggle to build trust, regardless of their score.
The goal is not to become someone else in English. It is to bring yourself across — with all your intelligence, humour, and warmth — into a different linguistic vehicle.
Three practical ways to reclaim your personality in English
- Find your equivalent expressions, not literal translations. Don't try to translate your jokes or idioms word for word — they'll land flat. Instead, look for English expressions that carry a similar feeling. The goal is emotional equivalence, not linguistic accuracy.
- Speak more, write less — at first. Writing in a foreign language often encourages over-editing and self-censorship. Speaking, even badly at first, forces you to stay in your natural rhythm. Podcasts, shadowing exercises, voice memos — all of these help you reconnect with your expressive self in English.
- Treat your accent and your hesitations as part of who you are. Research consistently shows that listeners find non-native accents interesting and trustworthy — when the speaker owns them with confidence. The version of you that exists in English is not lesser. It is just newer. Give it time.
The bigger picture
Every language you speak is a window onto a different version of yourself. The English version of you is not a diluted copy of the French, Spanish or Arabic one. It is an extension of who you are — shaped by the words available to you in that language, the contexts in which you use it, and the confidence you've built over time.
Your TOEIC or TOEFL score is a starting point. The real work — and the real reward — is learning to feel at home in that other self.
Source: Keysar, B. et al. (2014). The Foreign-Language Effect. PLOS ONE. Dewaele, J-M. (2010). Emotions in Multiple Languages. Palgrave Macmillan.