The "Un-unified" You...

[kodachrome64]

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[Kaligraphic]

This is a well-documented phenomenon, and is exhibited by all human beings. One occupies various roles throughout one's life - child, student, friend, spouse, businessman, waitress, gas station attendant, queen of England, parent, grandparent, older person, young person, and many, many more. (not everyone will occupy all of the roles I listed, and just about everyone will occupy many roles that I did not list.) You have roles by interaction, by setting, by function - it's how we learn to interact with our world.

I would liken it to a lamp set within a chandelier - there may be many panes of glass through which the lamp shines, but there is one lamp. Each pane will present the lamp differently, but it is always the same lamp. Each role consists of a set of protocols governing interaction with the exterior world in a given setting - essentially giving you different expressions of the same intent.

You'd learn more about this in a basic sociology course, and more about the structures of these roles, how they're acquired and lost, and various other stuff.

[kodachrome64]

I see. I kind of regret not taking sociology in high school as it would definately answer this question. Though I always thought that one has to try and integrate these little roles or else the person might suffer from actually having too distinct of personalities.

One might actually enjoy being at parties while wanting to be solitary at home. If I were to observe this in another person, it would be hard to see the individual on who he really is as the roles differ from condition to condition.

[termyt]

Yeah, and Kaligraphic's Queen of England side is a sight to behold.

I've also heard that when you learn a new language, you develop a separate personality for that language. Kaligraphic put it all much better than I would have, though, and his explanation also shows why that would be true. It depends on how you learn the language.

I know of an American who lives in Japan. His daughter is a total tomboy when she's speaking Japanese and she's a prissy, cute little girl when she's speaking in English. It has to do with who she hung out with the most when she learned how to use each language.

[uc pseudonym]

I find the language portion of this thread quite interesting; it is new to me. That has not been my experience, but I have never obtained mastery of another language.

For myself, I have experienced this phenomenon, but to a lesser degree. That is not to say that my actions do not cover a broad spectrum, but rather that they have never solidified into specific roles. I react based upon the people with me; the more serious a person is, the more serious I will be. Overall, however, there is no specific personality based on situation, and all of these are still essentially permutations of my basic personality.

[mitsuki lover]

I would say that I tend to be shier around people I don't know and more
outgoing around the ones I do know.
As far as language goes,well I can't really say as the only langauge outside of English I have ever studied was German.

[kodachrome64]

What termyt says makes sense: The language you learn is basically going to be an adaption of who you are going to communicate to. In that case, you won't be the same English-speaking self when you switch to another language you're fluent in.

I notice that people from other countries seem a lot different when they speak their own language other than English. In some ways, they seem a lot friendlier when they speak in English, but more assertive when they talk in their native language. I just wished that I studied up on my Spanish so that I'd actually notice the differences of someone's character.

It's confusing when you think about it, but I'm sure it works in practice.

[Kaori]

I've also heard that when you learn a new language, you develop a separate personality for that language.

I had never heard that before; that's fascinating. I wonder, though, if the phenomenon is more observable in people who have grown up speaking more than one language than in people who learn a second language in school, since in the latter case the academic setting is the same regardless of what language is being spoken. Though I am not exactly fluent, I have had enough French to be able to hold halting conversations, and I never really observed any difference in the personalities of my classmates when they were speaking French instead of English.