The moment you first dreamed / thought in the new language

As an older learner it took considerably longer for me, over a year, but it did eventually happen — just wanted to add a data point for anyone worried age rules it out entirely.

Did it happen in dreams first for most people here, or in waking thought? Curious if there's a common order.

Anna — waking thought first for me, dreams followed a couple of months later. Seems to be genuinely mixed based on this thread though.

This thread made me smile, because mine happened last week at the age of sixty-four, and it was not dignified.

I dreamed that I was arguing with the man at the hardware shop about a tap washer, entirely in Portuguese. In the dream I was winning. I woke up very pleased with myself, told Sue, and she pointed out that in real life I'd been to the hardware shop the day before and had pointed at the washer and said "this, but smaller" in English. Still, the dream counts. My brain has clearly decided it can do it, even if my mouth hasn't caught up.

For anyone older who's worried it won't happen: it's slower, much slower, but it does happen. I started lessons fourteen months ago, twice a week, and it's taken all of that to get one argument about a tap washer. I'll take it.

I said in June that I was still waiting. It finally happened last month, doing mental arithmetic at the supermarket till, exactly like Hiroshi described. I had to stop for a second in the queue. Thank you all for making me believe it would come.

Ben, "this, but smaller" is going to be my phrase for the rest of the week. The dream absolutely counts.

Mine was scolding the kids in Dutch without noticing. They noticed. They were not impressed.

counting in dutch in my head at the gym now. didn't notice when it started, just realised last week