Monday, June 02, 2008

fais de beaux rêves, take two

For the past year, I've experienced stranger-than-normal dreams. And I've had some doozies in my life, even dreaming about punctuation in grad school. (Yes, I'm a nerd.) But I'm blaming the more recent weirdos on nine months of pregnancy and four months of sleep deprivation and postpartum hormonal craziness. Don't even ask me about my second trimester erotic dream about Homer Simpson. That one still gives me nightmares! Others have been disturbing, but in a whimsical way, like when I dreamed that Ed stuck a carrot in the soft spot on top of Griffin's head and said, "Now he's a unicorn."

But last night I had a detailed but fairly pedestrian dream, in content, at least: I was traveling through France with Griffin in his stroller, with two of my new friends from the "Survival for New Moms" class I attend at the hospital.

Oooh! Opportunity for another gratuitous Griffin photo! Here he is with his best friends, their daughters.

Anyway, the moms and I were doing normal touristy activities like shopping and flirting with cute guys and trying to figure out how to work foreign telephones. Griffin was being a baby and just hanging out watching.

It was only after I woke up that I realized that throughout the dream, I spoke to my friends in English but to Griffin in French, with the narration in my head in French as well. I even remember having a conversation all in French with myself about one of the cute guys I met--Pierre--pondering the irony of chatting up a man whose name Ed and I had considered for our baby before settling on Griffin.

This is the first time that I can recall a bilingual dream that involved my baby. It fascinates me that my linguistic interactions in my sleep mirrored those in my day-to-day life!

What language(s) do you dream in? Do the languages appear with the same frequency, the same interlocutors, and the same contexts as in your waking hours? What language(s) do your family members speak in your dreams?

4 comments:

  1. And how does Ed feel about you dreaming about flirting with cute French guys?

    This may be rather complicated sounding, but back in college I had a dream where I had to make up a test for my English professor, and he asked me if I wanted to take it in Spanish or German. Since at the time, Spanish was my stronger language, I said, "Spanish" and he said, "Are you sure?" So then I was doubting myself.

    I haven't had a dream where I was speaking German to the twins, but usually when my dreams involve my children, they are missing!

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  2. Hi Sarah,

    I wasn't sure where to put this comment, but I wanted to thank you for stopping by the other day. Your comments were very encouraging for me.

    It's great that you're learning Spanish too. Keep us posted on how that's going for you.

    As far as what language I dream in? I say in English.

    And here's a good night wish for everyone...sueños dulces.

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  3. The unicorn made me laugh :)

    I remember the first time I dreamed in French. I remember waking because I'd finally made it. Now, I don't know what language I dream in unless someone in my dream is speaking the wrong language or if I'm really angry at someone.

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  4. A few times I have had a dream where I was speaking Spanish and I was doing pretty well! LOL! As for my children, I have dreamed that my older son (8) was speaking Spanish and seemed to be doing a good job. So interesting...

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