I hear a picture

I heard a picture in German today. No, I'm not mixing up English words because I've studied German so long, I really heard a picture in German today. My Sprachkurz teacher was telling a story about a dog and a child in German. Instead of hearing the German word then translating back to English, I created a picture just from the German words. To me, it signals that I'm starting to think in German. I still struggle to understand German spoken much faster than a snail's pace and I often have to ask the speaker to repeat a phrase but I can often respond to the words spoken (albeit with poor grammar and sometimes the wrong verb).

I also reached another significant milestone today, I felt German. Numerous multilingual speakers have told me that their personality changes when they speak a different language. Since I've never spoken another language fluently, I ussually smiled and nodded when others told me of the change, thinking that they were a little crazy. Today, I felt the beginnings of the change. Well, I actually felt the change when I switched back to English after speaking and listening to German for nearly 2 hours. While speaking German, my posture and mannerisms became more deliberate and I spoke more precisely. When I switched back to English, I noticed how my posture changed and I began to speak more loudly (even though all my companions spoke fluent English). The experience was quite uncanny. I hope it happens again soon. :-)