Warren’s responses to Dr. Boroditsky’s talk stood out to me. he makes an interesting set of points between the first two quotes he responded to – teasing apart language and culture while indicating that language may not shape thinking as much as culture does.
I think that this is fascinating – to me what Warren appears to be engaging with, especially in his writing around Seppuku, resonates more with the idea of “values” rather than what I was considering as “ways of thinking”. But how are those things different?
I think I had been approaching this task from almost a neural pathway level – do we develop different pathways in our brain based on the languages we speak? Cursory searches seem to indicate that there’s a level of ‘rewiring’ that takes place when you learn a new language (Wei et al., 2024). I wonder if similar changes would occur if you moved to a culturally distinct place that shared the same language that you already speak, or if language itself alters the brain in a distinct way from other immersive experiences of culture. Warren’s response really took me aback – it was a direction I hadn’t considered when I was listening to Dr. Boroditsky’s talk and I appreciate that eye-opening!
I found April’s response beautiful, visually. I also appreciated her reflection coming from her perspective as a grade 1 teacher who is observing students learning how to communicate their feelings. For some reason that twigged me to my experiences in therapy – not just communicating my feelings but also how much labor goes into breaking up patterns of thought that seem to have sprung from nowhere.
This connected me back to Warren’s response – do I think the process of learning to think about, label, and sort through my own feelings is something that would be impacted by language? I think it’s evident that our relationships to our emotions are impacted through culture, but would having multiple words for love make it easier to sort through on an individual level? I’m often grasping at straws when it comes to describing feelings of anxiety, diving into simile and metaphor to articulate to others what is happening. But what about communicating with myself? One strategy that I’ve personally found effective is kind of similar to ‘noting’ in meditation. When I find myself overwhelmed and anxious, having the time, space, and ability to put a label on it can help. How is that act of labelling connected to language, culture, and my own emotional regulation?
This response got a little off the rails but I found it interesting how those two responses connected together and provoked something for me. Thank you Warren and April!
References
Huang, A. (June 1, 2024). Task 2: Does language shape the way we think? ETEC 540. https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec540ah/2024/06/01/task-2-how-languages-shape-the-way-we-think/
Wei, X., Gunter, T. C., Adamson, H., Schwendemann, M., Friederici, A. D., Goucha, T., & Anwander, A. (2024). White matter plasticity during second language learning within and across hemispheres. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences – PNAS, 121(2), e2306286121-e2306286121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2306286121
Wong, W. (May 27, 2024). Task 2: Does language shape the way we think? ETEC 540. https://blogs.ubc.ca/warrenwong/2024/05/27/task-2-does-language-shape-the-way-we-think/