Does language shape the way we think? Charlemagne, Holy emperor said “to have a second language is to have a second soul.” This means that our language creates our reality. Languages affect cognitive ability. For example, in an aboriginal community in Australia Kuuk Thaayorre in Pormpuraaw (on the west edge of Cape York), they talk in cardinal directions (not left or right) such as north, west, east, and south. Instead of saying hello, they say “which way are you going?” You respond with something like “north-north east in the far distance, how about you?” They can stay oriented very well because they are trained by their culture. Also, if they were to sort something in chronological order, they would place them from east to west (instead of left to right) in way it corresponds to their landscape.
There are languages that don’t have a number system thus not deep in mathematics. Also, Russians have different names for shades of blue while we have only the color blue. As such, Russians are faster to tell the difference between a darker and lighter blue. Their brains will show a “surprise reaction” as the color shifts from dark to light as a categorical change. Some languages have a gramatical gender. Like the sun has a feminine gender in German while a masculine one in Spanish. These genders do affect the way that language speakers perceive the world. For example, Germans described a bridge as “beautiful” and “elegant” due to its feminine gender, while Spanish speakers describe it as “long” and “strong” with its masculine gender. Languages are structured differently such as “he broke the vase” while in Spanish you say “they vase broke” since it was an accident. People of different languages pay attention to different things depending on what language requires us to do. In English we remember who did it while in Spanish we remember if it was an accident (intentions). We tend to blame more in English. The speaker states: “The beauty of linguistic diversity is that it reveals to us just how ingenious and how flexible the mind is. Human minds have invented not one cognitive universe, but 7,000 — 7,000 languages spoken around the world.” We can also create languages. We are losing one language a week, thus in 100 years we will lose half. She concludes that we reflect on how are we shaped to think and how do we want to think.
While this Youtube video does not discuss the bilingual brain specifically, it does discuss how language affects us. I include this in my studies to see the role that language has on us in determining our perceptions about the world, and how that is applicable to helping us see the role that two or more languages learned together can affect the way we see and respond to others and the world around us. This increase in perceptions is an advantage of having a bilingual or multilingual brain.
Video Source: TED. (2018, May 2). How language shapes the way we think | Lera Boroditsky [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKK7wGAYP6k
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