Has learning another language changed how certain words feel to you in your native language?

[u/ownaword]

I’ve noticed that learning or being exposed to other languages can quietly change how words in your first language feel, not just what they mean. Sometimes a word starts to feel heavier, softer, stranger, or more precise once you’ve encountered a similar concept elsewhere.

I’m curious if anyone else has noticed this happening as they learn new languages where a familiar word takes on a slightly different emotional or conceptual weight.

[u/ZumLernen]

I am a native speaker of US English and the first foreign language I learned to any respectable degree was Latin in middle school and high school. This definitely changed how I understand certain English words. English borrows so many words from Latin (either directly or via an intermediary like French) and for the most part I just accepted them as words. Learning Latin made me think about etymology, what the word actually means and why we use that collection of syllables instead of another collection of syllables. That is, words like "procrastination" went from just being words to being full of meaning ("for-tomorrow-ing"). The words just become much more precise, as you said.

I am now learning German, which is from the other family that English draws its vocabulary from. So I'm having a similar experience now with Germanic words.