This week, I am tasked with watching Dr. Lera Borditsky’s SAR lecture from May 2017 and write a few thoughts of what spoke to me.

The statements that spoke to me or I can relate to at a personal level are:

1. [1:16] Introduction to the topic on how languages we speak, shape the ways we think. We can use a finite set a rules that we combine… creating air vibrations… implanting into your brain and turning them into language”
2.  [5:35] Dr. Boroditsky speaks to the Navajo verb chart – It is interesting to see how a simple word, “consumption” can be broken down into so many parts and be used in so many ways
   

   language breakdown

3. [11:01] Dr. Boroditsky mentions about how we think about time, place, colour, etc. People reading from left to right, but languages such as Arabic that people read from right to left, can have VERY different meanings.
   

   Nestle commercial can have a very different meaning reading from right to left, rather than left to right.

   In addition, other languages depicts future as behind, rather than in front.  Other cultures don’t use languages relative to the body, but rather, directions in a map (North, South, East, West).

4. [21:07]When you teach people to talk in a new way, you are teaching them to think in a new way as well.
   

   Language creates categories

5.  [21:05] Language creates categories. If you learn a language that depicts the sun / moon to be masculine or feminine, would you start to think of the sun / moon to be more male like or female like?
6.  [43:47] While languages and cultures make us smart (through thousands of years), it reduces cognitive entropy… Meaning, we can think about the world in many ways, but we don’t the thinking the same way.The languages are ever changing, and evolving.

Introduction

Dr. Lera Boroditsky spoke to how our brain interprets language. Person A can form new meaning using verbal slurs, sounds, and vibrations which when Person B hears it, their brains can form new neurons to gather information and forms new meaning.  The difference of interpretation depends greatly on the listener’s culture and what is their mother tongue.   A great example of this is when Dr. Borditsky displays the Nestle commercial where people who reads left to right can interpret the ad very differently than a person who reads from right to left.   This can cause misunderstandings even if the speaker means well.

Language as Technology

As a dancer at one point in my life, I can relate to McDonald’s perspective that “dance is a relic, a living tradition… past down from generations to generations”. Language does not have to be spoken, it can be depicted as dance, movements, songs, or any type of art.  When another artist mimics the dance teacher, “they’re not just repeating movements” they are putting their own “stories” into the dance movements. Their own cultures and interpretations as they build on it.  As Dr. Boroditsky suggests, language is ever evolving. Technologies, such as Steezy and social media platforms, such as Instagram, Youtube and TikTok provides a network of opportunities for dancers, artist and other content creators to freely expand on their own language and pass it down to the next generation worldwide.

Dialect VS Languages

Watching the next video…It was bizzare… Actually, I did not even realize when Shetlandic poet, Christine de Luca softly read in English and then subtley switches into Shetlandic. Perhaps I was still adapting to what she was speaking to and then suddenly, I could not understand her anymore. I kept going back to a point where she switches, but still felt very strange.  It rings true, as Dr. Boroditsky suggests, that languages are interpreted as sounds, and vibrations. Sometimes if we don’t pay enough attention, there may be misinterpretations or we may miss important changes in dialects. How do we as language speakers eliminate this confusion?

Discussion

There are 3 ways which Dr. Boroditsky suggests how language can change thinking.

The first is to train people to talk in new ways. In the question and answer session, Dr. Boroditsky suggests that even people who are in close relationships can misinterpret their partner’s thoughts and meaning.  Couples who can take advantage of marriage / couples counseling can gain tools / new ways to communicate. For example, instead of saying “You never put the dishes away”, one may suggest to say “It would make me feel happy if you can put the dishes away without me asking”

The second is to take language away. Dr. Boroditsky suggests that a person can be given a set of words to speak in repetition to eliminate some of the outside noise / task that distracts our brain to interpret what is spoken.

The third is to ask the speaker to speak another language and so the learner / lister can learn and be assessed if they have successfully understood 1 language rather than juggling 2 at the same time. This can eliminate confusion and information can be absorbed faster.