No matter how fluent you are, you always count to yourself in your mother tongue
A Vietnamese engineer I once worked with told me this. She'd lived in the U.S. since childhood, went to school here all the way through college, was totally fluent in English, and completely Americanized. But she said she still counts in Vietnamese in her head.
Anyone else notice this?
20 Answers
About eighteen months ago, I was extremely focused on learning how to count in Spanish. When I say focused...if anything in my life involved numbers, I made sure I used Spanish.
One day I went out to eat with a rather large group of friends. When the hostess asked how many needed to be seated, I counted in my head quickly and responded with "catorce". 
Several people, including the hostess looked at me as if I was having a seizure of some sort. I suddenly realized what I done and didn't know whether to feel embarrassed or happy because the numbers had finally sunk in. 
Hi ,
Actually I never use Spanish or French numbers in counting 
unless if I am telling time I may use a little bit of Spanish in this
.
Otherwise I normally count in English when I am counting small numbers like 22 or 99 but when I get over 100 I usually use Arabic in counting it's much more easier and faster for me 
Plus my little sister is a little bit annoying she keeps asking me what does that mean ? and what does this mean ?
so I prefer to use my native language in this one 
Not for me.
When im speaking polish i count in Polish.
When im speaking english i count in English
when im speaking Spanish i count in English or Polish, but not Spanish.
when im speaking German i count in Spanish.
ok the last sentence is not true, but the others are.
I count (one, two, three..so forth and so on) in English or Spanish. My thoughts switch back and forth depending on what I'm thinking about.
Now, my social security number I learned in English, so if I want to say it in Spanish, i must translate it. Phone numbers I remember in the language I happened to memorize them.
Furthermore, I can only multiply in Spanish!
So, go figure what an mess I've got in my head!
SO TRUE!!!!! My Grandmother is Chinese and she has been in America for 30+ years and ALWAYS counts in Chinese even though see is fluent with English as well.
Hola:
Yo cuando hablo en inglés cuento en inglés, tanto al pensar como cuando hablo solo. Sin embargo, siempre deletreo en español.
Gekkosan's answer got me thinking about how I do math. This isn't exactly about counting, more about arithmetic, but I got interested in thinking about it, and I like to write out my thoughts, so here it is.
My elementary school math classes were in Spanish, but my mom and I spoke in English when she helped me with my math homework, so this may have contributed to how I think about numbers, but, for me, the word ("siete" or "seven") for any given number is not how I deal with the number. They are like gateways to the number. You can go in the front door or you can go in the back door, but the house is the same inside.
I don't do math in either language; at least, that's the way I think about it. I can call the numbers whatever I want: three and four or tres y cuatro, pero siempre son 7. Not seven or siete, but 7. The words to me are ways of referring to the actual number, the "sevenness", if you will. And while I think most people would agree with that, it seems that some people associate the words with the actual numbers very closely. (For example, it's much easier for them to do math on one language rather than another.) The seven I get when I add 3 and 4 is 1 x 7, not a single thing called seven. It is seven of whatever it is one is. Siete and seven are two ways of getting to the same thing, and when doing math, I don't use the way-of-getting-to, I just work in the thing itself. I need to stop taking philosophy classes... I'm talking about the "thing-itself" of the number 7. 
I know my situation isn't very common, but I'm curious to know how anyone else sees this, especially how I disassociate numbers with the words for them and how I did math in Spanish at school and in English at home. To what degree do you do this? Have you tried doing math in another language? How did it go? I know it's not very controversial in most company to say that a number can be reached by different words and that it is something over and above those words that they all access, but the degree to which I separate the number and the word for it (in that I don't do math in either language, like some people do) seems greater than the degree to which some other people separate them. Maybe someone who spoke Spanish at home and went to school the US will have had a similar experience.
When counting amounts 35 or smaller, I am as likely to count in Spanish as English if I have been speaking a lot of spanish that day, like when I am at work. Numbers greater than 35 however, I usually revert to English, unless counting aloud with spanish speakers. I have about 32 kids in my class which may give you a clue as to why 35 is my comfort zone.
Another Disagree!
I suspect I normally count to my self in English, because it has only dawned on me a few times that I was using something else.
But I have caught myself enough times doing it in another language, to disagree with your use (her use) of the word always.
Circumstance dependent, I'm sure, and when dealing with smaller amounts, but I don't think of it as unusual since that first time that I noticed, when I thought it meant something good.
Hola,
Para mí tampoco es así. Si estoy hablando en inglés cuento en inglés, si es en español, en español...
When I exercise, I count in Spanish. It seems to make the reps go quicker.
Well I would like to answer that but I am just not sure, I D O know, though, that I have a bit of trouble switching back and forth between the two languages and I have been thinking it must be an age thing (!) Hate to admit that but when I come back from meeting with Spanish speaking friends I have to give myself a mental shake to get into English mode to answer the phone or talk to a neighbour. How on earth does Lovely keep it all straight, but oh yes,, she is young and her brain is all lovely!
And my two-bob's-worth
I can't count...not very well anyway...no good with numbers...in English or Spanish ...I sometimes think the "numbers" part of my brain must have been starved of oxygen at birth 
I'll blame my twin - (for stealing all the oxygen) - and yes, she is good with numbers
I don´t know about counting in Spanish but the other night my wife told me I was speaking Spanish in my sleep. She has learnt the sound of the Spanish language. Wow, dreaming and speaking in Spanish, perhaps something is at last sinking in. The unfortunate thing was that she couldn´t correct me. Now if it had been wife number two, and you know who you are, no doubt I would have been woken up with each spoken error.
Hmm. Maybe it's not as common as she thought it was. I know you can all count in your other languages, but if you're by yourself, counting silently (not out loud), what language are you using in your head? The one you've used most recently?
