Purpose

By some estimates, half the world’s population is bilingual and many others are multilingual (Grosjean,
1982).
Regarding this groups of people, it has often been noted, sometimes by multilinguals themselves, that
they express different attitudes and characteristics of personality when they speak in different languages. Indeed,
previous research has even provided some support for the idea that language influences people’s responses to
valuerelated surveys . One of the most compelling theoretical explanations for these phenomena is the Cultural
Frame Switching (CFS; Hong, Chiu, & Kung, 1997; Hong, Morris, Chiu, & Benet-Martínez, 2000), where bicultural
individuals shift values and attributions in the presence of culture-relevant stimuli.Many issues are considered. For
example, being able to speak another language is linked to a more flexible brain.(Dr. Thomas Bak )
The study showed that the infants raised with two languages from birth displayed improved cognitive
control abilities compared to their monolingual counterparts.The studies suggest the multilingualism improves the
brain’s executive function. It helps with ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one
thing to another , holding information in mind and remembering adaptiv behavour including learning and
evolution(that enables a person to get along in his or her environment with greatest success and least conflict
with others. ). Learning another language is one of the most effective and practical ways to increase intelligence,
keep your mind sharp, and buffer your brain against aging
The main goal of this research is to prove that Bilinguals and multilinguals people experience that their
personality changes when they speak another language acording to the language’s origin’s cultural background.I
want to argue that language cannot be separated from the cultural values of that language. That you see yourself
and express yourself through the cultural values of the language you are speaking, making your personality molded
according to the spoken language.Attitude is a way of thinking about something or someone. Usually it is reflected
in a behavior of a specific person.Culture on another hand,is a behavior of a specific society. Culture is defined by
society norms formed over the years, their way of living, specific aspects of their life and, as a result, in their
customs.Combining the mixture of those two value brings us to conclusion that,cultural attitude represents a
way of thinking related to something orsomeone who belongs to a specific society which has their formed
way of living and customs.For instance,the traditional cultural values that influence the psyche of the Chinese
people are harmony, benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, honesty and loyalty.Face is called "mianzi" in
mandarin, which can also be translated to mean “dignity, prestige and reputation." It has been said that "face is
more important than truth or justice." Losing face if often people's worst fear. Chinese go out of their way to be
polite and accommodating, to maintain dignity in a variety of situations and avoid disputes, conflicts and
embarrassment in their pursuit to avoid losing face.Chinese often appear shy and self conscious to Westerners,
especially when they are around foreigners or are in situations which they are not used to. Chinese don't like to be
separated from crowd, stared at or asked too many personal questions.Chinese generally don't express their
feelings very well. The American-born Taiwan-raised film director Bertha Bay-Sa Pan told the New York Times, ‘The
Chinese are not very expressive. We don't tend to say, “I love you," even to our families, and we're not physically
affectionate."
Harmony remains a guiding philosophy in Japan that affects many features of society – especially that of
family and business. Working in harmony is viewed as the crucial element for productivity; thus, the Japanese have
a predisposition to be indirect, gentle and courteous even if they disagree with what you are saying.The Japanese
language itself also influences people’s perception of situations and one another. The language is very formal and
observant. It diverges into different styles of speech for people depending on their status. For example, natural
speech changes to be more respectful when people speak to someone older than them. This distinguishes distinct
hierarchies in society as deference and adherence to societal roles is naturally implied through the language.In
interpersonal relationships, most Japanese tend to avoid open competition and confrontation.Working with others
requires self-control, but it carries the rewards of pride in contributing to the group, emotional security, and social
identity. Wa (和), the notion of harmony within a group, requires an attitude of cooperation and a recognition of
social roles.
Most Romanians tend to be honest and open about themselves, freely sharing private information, even
with acquaintances. Their reaction to criticism or hostile opinions is quite varied it can be ignored or taken very
seriously. When talking to people, it is a good rule of thumb to maintain direct eye contact. Looking in another
direction while someone is talking to you could be construed as you ignoring them,there will be Romanians who
always find excuses for themselves, and in many cases believe whatever bad thing happened was somebodyelse’s
fault, while they’re the victims. This sometimes goes hand in hand with a belief in and a fear of conspiracies,
probably inherited from the Communist past, where conspiracies were indeed all over. In general, the first reaction
in case something goes bad is to blame it on someone else, while clearing their name.
The target group of people that represents interes for this research are the bilinguals and
multilingual people that beside their mother language speak on a fluently level japanese and english,focusing
also on japanese people that speak english from Japan and from America.
Acording to Bo Zhu ,cultural values hold great control on people’s social behaviors. To become culturally
competent, it is important for second language learners to understand primary cultural values in the target culture
and to behave in accordance with those values.
This, coupled with cultural influences amongst languages, may have an impact. I chose to study this
phenomenon using two different was of testing the subjects,first one representing the questionnaire type for of
examing as an measurment instrument of personality,paying attention to the big five important traits
:Openness,Conscientiousness,Extraversion,Agreeableness and Neuroticism, and the second one,the interview
where it will be posile to be observed and analyse the changhing of behaviour with people that speak 2 languages,
foreigners living in Japan and Japanese that went aboard, because there is a widespread belief that english
speakers japanese have very different values and attitudes from other japanese.