More than words

I noticed that sometime between the year 2000 and 2002, the voices in my head have changed from predominantly speaking in Mandarin to English.
I can easily switch my mind back to using Mandarin of course, but it just became a habit for me to conduct logical thinkings in English.

It's been a long journey for me, from 13 years ago when I could barely understand English conversations at a normal pace, to where I am today. I still wish that someday English grammar can become a second nature to me though, so that I don't have to constantly refining my words and combating confusion with tenses...etc.

In the past I've had discussions with people about what language do we (multilingual person) use for thinking, observing myself I find that my thought usually started out as a hunch, impulse, or feeling, and gets translated into its verbal equivalent of sounds and words.
There is a function in my brain where I can decide which language to translate it to.
Of course once you get so used to this process, the time lapses between thoughts and words are so minimal that they became negligable. So in the end, for most people, their words are their thoughts.
Learning to use another language as a primary communication tool slowed this process down, thus allowing me to observe how these things worked in my mind, and noticing what a pure thought is like.

I've experimented with focusing my attention purely on the thought impulses without translating them into words, and the experiences were pretty much like meditation. Pure thoughts, feelings and awareness, without any verbal interpretations of the experiences.

In a similar way, when I am asked about some deeply spiritual questions, (eg. The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything ^^ ), if I tune my attention inwards, I became silent.

It's not that I couldn't think of any answers, but that they seem irrelevant compared to the silence.