"Does Language Shape How You Think"

My classmate Wang Kai showed me this article, and I found it so interested that I wanted to share it with all of you. It was posted in the NY Times a couple of months ago, and is about the impact of language on your thought-process. 

Since studying abroad in college, I have become convinced that in order to TRULY speak a foreign language fluently (or even just fluidly), you have to abandon your mother tongue and think in that language. Anyone who has been immersed in another language will know that this is extremely difficult, but not impossible to do. It is, however, a quite unnatural. My friend Nathan suggested that it is a self-imposed, multiple-personality disorder. I don't fully subscribe to this strong analogy, but I think that there's a hint of truth to it. When I am in China speaking Chinese, I am "Ningqi." In fact, if my Chinese friends call me "Nicole," it feels very strange. "Ningqi" adopts Chinese sounds, Chinese mannerisms, and Chinese expressions. What is truly disorienting is when these elements carry over from one language to another. For instance, I've caught myself using Chinese grammatical structures when speaking English. It is quite sad to regress in one's own mother tongue.

What I want to ask Guy Deutscher (the author) is what the study of foreign languages does to change your "thought process." I feel like there's really something to this. Its one of the reasons I love languages so much, I feel that it really does "open your mind." Its also the reason why regardless of how many books you've read, you cannot be an expert in a foreign culture until you are proficient in the language. You cannot begin to understand their thought process until you've been immersed, and have adopted it. 

Moreover, what does this mean for bi-lingual children? Is this why it generally takes them longer to start speaking? Is their "scope of thought" wider than monolingual children?