People may be polyglot (those who can speak many languages) but when it comes to counting with numbers they usually switch to their first language.

I witnessed the same thing. That must be usual with Indians. They were colonised by Brits and look at the mess now.

If somebody can speak more than one language very well, they usually do not mix the words. If they do then it´s an indication that they do not speak them very well.

I witnessed that in Kemal Derviþ (who were sent to Turkey by IMF during a financial crisis in Turkey in 2001). He was living in USA for a long time (20-25 years I guess) but his Turkish was still perfect and I couldn´t hear any English words in his speech when I espacially paid an attention to hear one.

I think peacetrain is more on the target here. For example I can express better myself in English when I speak about a topic from my field of study/work - simply because I didn´t learn the professional lingo in Polish - it doesn´t mean I don´t speak Polish well, it is after all my mother tongue - it´s just easier to use the terminology with which I´m more familiar. I don´t mix Polish words into a conversation when I speak with an English speakers of course, but when I speak Polish I will use English words now and then. When I visit Poland and speak Polish only, it hardly ever happens. It´s usually when I have to switch back and forth during the course of the day. I do consider myself fluent in both languages and I am equally comfortable communicating in both (of course since Polish is my native tongue it´ll always be the language I know "better"). So I would strongly disagree with your statement quoted above.

That´s not the case with me. What I do find however is that it´s unnatural for me to "visualize" a word in my head when somebody spells it to me in English - I need to write down the letters to know what word they are spelling. I noticed a similar thing with other polyglots  , one guy I used to know spoke perfect English but when he was spelling words he´d use the French alphabet (which was his native language) unless he made a conscious effort to use the English one.

That´s a lazyness when somebody cannot find proper words of their first language and resort to the easy way. People do that. A lot of people. And there are those who don´t. I admire them. I also pay attention to not use foreign words when speaking Turkish . And I am quite successful.

Aren´t you just the greatest? Let me build a monument for you. From all of us lazy speakers. 

It´s not always lazy speakers. It also includes those who cannot speak even their first language properly. let alone the fact that they should not mix foreign (usually English) words.

 Trudy what are you saying you are not bi-lingual, of course you are!!!  You speak Dutch, and English (and very well too) how is that not bi-lingual??

The reason the word "friend" doesn´t bear as much meaning as it once did is likely due to people who have English as their mother language over-using it. We English use words like "mate" or "buddy", whereas if you´re being sold something by a foreign person you´re a "friend". It´s not just the word that gives meaning to the overall meaning of the sentence it´s in though, which is what I´m getting at - you can say "my dear friend" or "close friend", but you can also replace the word with other words such as "acquaintance" or "confidant" or many other words.

This is why I have no trouble expressing myself with English words - because as you say, certain words such as "friend" may have lost their meaning slightly but you can compensate for that with careful use of the words around it or even a different choice of word. It´s this huge variety of different communication styles and techniques which allows you to be more personal and have greater control over what you say, both directly and indirectly. Not only that but also the tone of voice you use when you speak such things can have a huge impact on the overall message that you´re trying to communicate. How much of this diversity and choice is available to the author with Turkish?

I can understand how swearing would always seem stronger in your native language, and the same with things such as "I love you". Though again, instead of saying love you could replace it with "I adore you", "I´m infatuated with you". Or you could build meaning around the phrase such as "Your love is something I yearn for, profusely and immeasurably". These aren´t the best examples but I think you´ll get what I mean .

Also, relax guys we don´t need flame wars . I appreciate all of your input though!

Oh, and on a side note, anyone heard of a book called Eunoia? Each chapter of it uses only a single vowel. I think you´d struggle to accomplish such a thing with Turkish - what are your thoughts? (link for BBC article on the book - http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7697000/7697762.stm )

 As being a native speaker of Turkish and almost an advanced user of English, I can confidently say that learning Turkish is  more difficult than learning English. However, once you get to the level of expressing your thoughts and feelings the picture is not all the same. What I believe is expressing yourself in a language purely depends on how good you are with using that language. In the case of ability to use both English and Turkish equally, I cannot say that expressing feelings with English is easier due to its wider options for. If we continue the example of friendship, I can count words such as "kankam, dostum, arkadaþým, tanýdýðým, hemþehrim" and so on just to mention different levels of friendship just like in English. It is the same with expressing your love to someone you can just purely say "seni seviyorum" or you can put other little word plays around it and make your expression seem richer.

The main reason why we can express ourselves better in one specific language is, I believe depends on the reason of we mastering that language. For example, although I can fluently use English, when it comes to expressing my feelings I just run out of words. Even tho there are many ways as you have mentioned before, it is not easy for a foreign speaker to get used to them and think as widely as a native speaker could. However, if I were to spend a great deal of my life in an English speaking country, and not using my main language in tha daily use, I would probably find it easier to express myself in English. My point is, the more you master a language and get used to its everyday usage, it gets easier to express yourself as well. The " huge variety of different communication styles and techniques which allows you to be more personal and have greater control over what you say, both directly and indirectly" fact only seems to come when you can use the language by heart. Because I can do the same with Turkish without any trouble  

One thing that makes Turkish a little difficult is the way we give morethan one meaning to the same word. However, as it comes to the same point, once you master the language you can easily understand what the word actually means.

By the way, the reason why we are not using those old words from Ottomans today is purely because most of  the words they used were not Turkish. However people who are older than 70 are still having most of their vocabulary from those times, which makes them quite special I believe.

Oh and about the vowel stuff, yeah probably we wouldn´t be able to that. However, we would be able to write a story on a single word ahah

Hmmm..!

That´s absolutely true. Naturally you´d be able to express yourself easier in a language you know more thoroughly. But certainly, one language must be inherently easier to communicate certain things than another. The trouble here is finding someone completely non-biased about the two languages, which I don´t think we can completely accomplish but perhaps someone with an English and a Turkish parent would be able to offer the most valuable insights into this.

Quote: derya_

Oh and about the vowel stuff, yeah probably we wouldn´t be able to that. However, we would be able to write a story on a single word ahah

That´s another part of what I´m trying to explain actually. It´s great in many ways that you can cut down the amount of communication required in order to state something, but then it also has disadvantages. When I was studying Turkish I found it very frustrating that various things I´d say in Turkish could be miscounstrued to mean something else. Naturally you´d gain an understanding of it so you could avoid the misunderstanding more easily the more fluent you are, but the point is that it just seems considerably easier to say exactly what you mean in English. Because of the sheer vocabulary and different techniques available, words tend to only have a single meaning - this allows you to be very precise with what you say, and the meaning of the word can be changed slightly by the context in which you put it.

That´s the main problem I had