Exclaimer: I'm by no means trilingual, but I do speak 3 languages though.
- When I talk to a person, I think in their language.
- When I talk to 2 people of different languages, I will end up speaking the wrong language to both of them.
- When I talk to 3 people of different languages, I will use all 3 languages in one single sentence.
- Compared to speaking, writing takes a lot more effort to switch amongst those languages.
- I don't think in only one language at a time. I break down a sentence by the way that makes sense the most to me. For example: "我爱的TA" = "我爱的teaching assistant".
- As a result, I express myself best when I could use all 3 languages.
- My pronunciation is neutral down amongst the languages I speak (less distinguishable than monolingual speakers).
- People have a hard time to trace back my origin.
+ When I speak English in China: "Are you Hongkongese?"
+ When I speak Chinese in China: "Are you Thai?"
+ When I speak English in Thailand: "Are you Chinese?"
+ When I speak Vietnamese in Vietnam: "Oh, sorry, I thought you were speaking Chinese!"