ERP waves and scalp topographies show divergent difference waves (Atypical‐Typical, Correct Yes responses only) for pictures of items as judged by (top) English‐speaking participants and (bottom) Mandarin‐speaking participants. English‐speaking participants show a strong typicality effect in the left frontal electrodes (F3, F7) for the N300 component and bilateral frontal electrodes (F3, F7, F4, F8) for the N400 component. In contrast, the expected N300 and N400 differences were not found for Mandarin‐speaking participants. Both English and Mandarin speaking‐participants also show a strong typicality effect in the middle frontal electrode (Fz) for the LPC component, for which Mandarin speaking participants showed a more widespread distribution in the bilateral frontal electrodes (F3, F4, F7). * P < 0.05 ** P < 0.01 *** P < 0.001 for Bonferroni corrected post‐hoc comparisons.