Read on Yahoo! News:

People who are bicultural and speak two languages may unconsciously change their personality when they switch languages, according to a U.S. study.

[...] They found significant changes in self perception or “frame-shifting” in bicultural participants — women who participate in both Latino and Anglo culture.

Tell me about it… I’m a Colombian who lived 7 years in French Canada. Now I’m in the U.S. making use of my English skills. And while the study suggests the change of attitude is authomatic when switching languages, I wonder if the attitudes remain and become personality traits. Sometimes I’m looked at as a foreigner by people who have known me all my life. One of my college friends stopped talking to me because, according to her, I have changed to the point where she does not even recognize me.

Is this the result of a change in my perception of the world? Am I too Americanized now? According to the study, that seems to be the case. My guess is that speaking another language makes us less spontaneous because we’re still using a part of our brain we don’t when speaking the mother language.

Now that I think about it, my husband asked me if I have multiple personalities. I guess he is right…