How has your target language(s) shaped your identity and have you chosen or adopted a new name in that culture?
After entertaining this idea with my Iranian friends as a way to explore and cultivate my own Iranian / Persian identity and how I express myself, I’ve chosen the name Neda, meaning “voice” / “calling”.
Wow that sounds very interesting. I have never thought about choosing another name. I only know about some people who have described them behaving differently while talking in another language.
Some people also have names that are easily convertible like Jack for instance, which can be Jacques (French), Giacomo (Italian), Jakob (German), Jakob (Polish).
Unfortunately, I don’t speak any language yet where I could choose a new identity, but I think the idea is wonderful 
I haven’t exactly had enough practice to change my identity when I speak other languages. I do admit, I feel different when speaking Spanish, but I’m not to any sort of fluent level, so I haven’t lost myself in a different language just yet. It’s a fascinating thought. I do find myself feeling different when I am taking in(listening or watching) my other languages of interest. Perhaps, when I am closer to fluent, I shall adopt a different demeanor for each.
I don’t really feel much different when I talk in a European language like English, French or Spanish. I also couldn’t say if I’m any different when speaking Mandarin but I do speak with a higher and softer voice when speaking Japanese and I speak less direct than in all other languages. But I think that’s just more appropriate for Japanese and I don’t feel like I’m taking on a completely different personality.
I do have different names in different languages but they all originate from my original names. My full name is Miriam Miwae Zeilinger. Miriam is my German first name and Miwae is my Japanese middle name. So, in Germany people call me Miriam (some also Miri or Mimi) and in Japan Miwae 美和恵. At first I didn’t like if people mispronounced my German name, so when I studied in Japan I told my international friends to call me by my nickname Mimi. But now I accept when people pronounce Miriam with an English r or call me Myriam (French) or Maryam (Arabic and Persian). My Chinese name is a mixture of my last name Zeilinger and my Japanese name Miwae (both shortened and pronounced the Chinese way): Cai Meihui 蔡美惠. So, when I introduce myself I just use the version of my name that’s easiest to pronounce for the other person.
That’s so interesting, Miriam!
You’ve managed to articulate this far better than I have! While I don’t take on a totally new identity or personality, I felt that exploring a native reference would help represent how I express myself and saw myself with the language and culture. If that makes sense?
And how funny, I just realised Neda shares the same letters as Candace… not that I was going for that. 
I also agree with you on speech production, too. This is very similar to my experience speaking Persian, where I sound quite feminine in comparison to my native Australian self. I also tend to feel like I am more polite, but that could be in any language for me, as us Australians are (perhaps too) casual and informal at the best of times…
It’s an interesting topic. I wouldn’t say that I have a total identity change, but when I speak some languages, I feel that I’m different. In certain languages, I speak more and swear more, and I’m more reserved in others.
I always use the same name, but sometimes it feels different.
I’m a shy Japanese person, and I used to be even shier before I started to use English and Spanish to talk to people from other countries.
It’s like learning how to express myself and communicate differently through the experience.
I agree: in certain languages, it’s much easier to swear! 
When I was in the thick of studying Russian in grad school, I started using my nickname “Sadia” as it was easier for the Russian exchange students to pronounce. It’s not a Russian name, just rolls of the tongue easier for them. I know a few people in my Irish class that took on Irish versions of their name… I’d have to totally change my name to something else for that to work, though having said that, I rather fancy the name “Sorcha”.
This is a great question and something I have struggled with for a long time. I have a name that has an equivalent in so many of the world’s languages, and when I started learning Spanish and Portuguese, I began introducing myself as Miguel when traveling in those countries.
But ultimately it did not feel authentic and I went back to just being Michael. I would totally be okay with adopting a nickname, though, especially if it made it easier for others to pronounce. In that case, I would say something like, “Hi, my name is Michael, but you can just call me nickname.”
Just few days ago I shared on one of my accounts one of the names Turkish people use to call me.
Elanur:
That being said, it means/might be given to one with beautiful hazel/goldish eyes. That sounds nothing like mine 
but it was close enough to how people in Turkey would pronounce Alanood (elanut), they just replaced the “t” with “r”. Others, try to use alternative version of my name like (Ceylan).
I enjoy every bit of mispronunciation/the new names that I am given. I feel it is more than just a name -not necessary changes my identity- and I enjoy the experience and the effort.
Thank you
I can relate a lot to your experience Sachi.
I think that the culture you are in when speaking another language does have an effect on your behaviour/identity - I am more outgoing in, let’s say Spanish, than I am in my mother tongue.
Nevertheless, as @Miriam also mentioned I don’t see it as not being “me” but rather a cultural adaptation to the environment. It also helps me to switch between languages, and to distinguish them in my brain;)
Same! I don’t purposely adopt a different identity per se, but I find that in French my speech is more forceful and confident than in Japanese, where I unwittingly present a more softly spoken and reserved persona. I think it’s just because I find that my personality translates better in French than in Japanese, even though I have a smaller French vocabulary.
In primary school, the French teacher gave us all French names (mine was Rosalie), which stuck with me, although I don’t actively use it. I ended up going by Lily/Riri in Japan, since my name isn’t easy for Japanese people to understand/pronounce (I had so many awkward moments in Starbucks when people tried to write my name on my cup…). It just made things easier all round!
This is a really interesting question! I think I definitely have a different identity for each of the language I speak to a high level - or rather, they each hold a different part of my whole identity as a person. I should probably mention that I see identity and personality as two separate things, and here I’m referring to identity as in how I perceive myself/identify as a person, and not necessarily how I act. Like others have mentioned, I don’t think my personality changes as I switch between languages (though I may act or speak slightly differently depending on the culture) but I do view each language as separate puzzle pieces that form my self-expression as a whole.
Mandarin Chinese, being mother tongue, is the language of my childhood. The fact that there was nearly a decade of minimal input in the language during my adolescent years only cemented it. All my childhood memories are encoded in this language, and it is the language I access that period of my life with. I’m not nearly as articulate in Mandarin as I am in English, but I’ve noticed that it’s far easier for me to cry to songs/literature in Mandarin, which is interesting. There are some words that hold deep emotional connotations to me (which were probably formed during childhood) and they don’t feel or sound or read quite the same to me in English.
English is my ‘adult’ language. It’s the language I used for studies, and then later, for work. I read, write and reflect often in it. In fact, I probably can’t write this comment as comfortably in Mandarin, because I’m not used to thinking about things like this in Mandarin. I find it easier to journal in English, too, because it provides a certain distance that Mandarin doesn’t. It isn’t as emotional for me.
Malay is our national language and it’s what ties me to my identity as a Malaysian, especially in a multilingual society like ours. I use the language mostly for communication, so I’m far less introspective in it. I rarely think in it or think about it, because when I use it I’m usually more concerned about getting the message across without friction than about clarity, precision and depth. It’s more about people and conveying a sense of warmth, and less about thought and structure.
I’m pretty comfortable with Korean, but I wouldn’t consider myself completely fluent and while I do feel an identity forming, I hesitate to put a name on something that is still taking shape. I feel like it’s somewhere between Mandarin and English but at the same time it is occupying an entirely different space. I’m currently exploring creative writing in the language, which I suspect will greatly influence the outcome.
I’ve only started learning French a year and a half ago, so I don’t think I have an identity in French yet, though I do look forward to the day where I may finally meet it!
All that being said, I do believe identities are malleable and subject to change. They’re in no way set in stone, although some connections are stronger and harder to shake than others. I don’t view these varying identities as limitations, but rather a positive influence that enriches my life, as well as my existence as a person. It’s like getting to see (and interact) with the world through different lenses.
Fascinating reflection, Heather. Thank you for sharing such a detailed view of this. While my language experiences are not as many or developed as yours, many of your points still resonated with me.
For every language I have one or two but for Russian, I have somewhere around 4-5 nicknames
For me, I really like my Vietnamese name which my Vietnamese teacher gave me, Chính. It means important in Vietnamese. I was at a point of depression at that time because I was totally affected by the people around me. I had put others before me and totally neglected myself. My teacher then gave me the name for me to constantly remind myself that I am and I should be the most important in my life. That really helped change the way I think and do things and I’ve been taking care of others not at the expense of myself since then. So, I really love my Vietnamese name and whenever I speak in Vietnamese, I feel very empowered!
I am very quiet in English, almost like a spectator to everything around me because I grew up hearing English only in movies, never around me. It’s also the language where I’m the most afraid of making mistakes (probably because I learned in a school setting).
Like Heather, I’m also more emotional in my mother tongue (French).
In Spanish, I make more jokes and in Portuguese, I’m the most joyful.
Kind of unfortunately, my name is pretty international but I’ve chosen the name Putri in Indonesian