As you view this lecture, identify at least 6 statements that strike you or you relate to at a personal level. Record the timestamps of such statements and respond to or comment on each statement in your webspace. 

[10:25] There has been a lot of new empirical work actually trying to understand: do people who speak different languages think differently — other than having strong opinions one way or the other, can we put some scientific basis under these questions…

Although I have studied French, I am far from being fluent in French so I am actually monolingual. Yet from my discussions with friends and family members who speak more than one language, I have been able to surmise that being a polyglot extends their understanding and experience of the world around them because each language they know fluently carries cultural influences and even historical influences. For example, when I was in Brazil I learned about a unique word in European and Brazilian Portuguese—”saudade”, meaning to be longing for a person or even a place, a bittersweet feeling that is both sad and tender.

[18:25] When you teach people to talk a new way, you’re teaching them to think a new way as well…

I have been reading a book called The Power of Language: How the Codes We Use to Think, Speak and Live Transform Our Minds (Marian, 2023). Through her psycholinguistic research, the author has concluded that “at least some of the things that we perceive and remember differ depending on what labels we use. Learning another language makes it possible to process the environment around us without the constraints imposed by the limits of a single language (Marian, p.21-22).

[42.55] Can language really shape thinking?

I was intrigued when Boroditsky said that two of the ways language can be used to change our thinking is to “Train new ways of talking” and “To take language away.” From what I have seen, many new or repurposed words and phrases have been introduced in the English language through social, cultural and political movements. These new words or terms are loaded with meaning and bias so they are identified with a particular point of view or ideology. Often they reveal a bias, depending how they are used. For example, in the public discussions about abortion, the terms “pro life” are used in contrast with “pro choice.” “Pro life” suggests that those who oppose abortion rights value protecting the sanctity of human life while “pro choice” suggests that those who favour abortion rights value freedom of choice for human beings. The use of those terms, however, also has negative implications for those who do not align themselves with one of them: for example, if you are not “pro life”, that implies you do not value the sanctity of human life, and if you are not “pro choice”, that implies you must be opposed to freedom and human rights for our own bodies. Thus, the terms themselves are polarizing; there is no popular term for someone who may be in favor of abortion rights but also wants to protect the sanctity of life.  There are other more recent examples of terms like these, but it shows how language can used as a tool for social engineering, with possible negative or positive outcomes.

[50:37] It is impossible to achieve exact translation across any two languages.

I understand what Boroditsky is saying her, and I know this from discussions with my father (who was bilingual German-English) and various friends who are bilingual or multilingual. To me this is an important statement because it presents a challenge to human society in this century and beyond. There are so many shades and complexities in every word and every language that it may be humanly impossible for even skilled, multilingual translators to translate with great precision between languages. Generative artificial intelligence and quantum computing technology, however, may present an unprecedented opportunity for us to develop real-time translations between multiple languages that are as precise as possible, considering that culture, context and experience also present layers that obstruct the possibility of fully synonymous, equitable communication.

[54:31] People who have lived in multiple places around the world score better on tests of creativity.

This statement reminded me of how, as a native English speaker, I was always amazed that writers such Canadian Michael Ondaatje, whose first language was Tamil, and novelist Joseph Conrad, whose first language was Polish, could be such phenomenal English language authors, creative masters of the language. This makes me believe that globalism and multilingualism is so important for universal education practices, because there are opportunities for fostering greater creativity and insight. Educational foreign exchange programs may be especially influential for students to experience different languages and cultures.

[56:49] Do you think that the different ways people use the language now by texting is changing the way they think?

I reflected on Boroditsky’s response to this question, which was “Is there something systematically different about the way you use language and text as opposed to in spoken language, so is there some pattern that you would specifically predict, because if its just an abbreviated form of language, it may not lead to interesting differences….” In my experience, communication by text messaging was historically driven by low bandwidth connectivity and simplicity of user experience in the late 1990s/early 2000s; in other words, it was faster and easier to send short text messages on devices that had low bandwidth Internet connectivity or were on low bandwidth mobile networks. The preponderance of texting in the late 1990s and early 2000s led to several user innovations, such as acronyms for common phrases, emojis to convey emotional reactions and deconstructed grammar, such as no upper case letters, intentional misspellings to shorten common words and no periods at the end of sentences. While these may have seemed like language innovations and game changers, Boroditsky reminds us that such changes are natural to language evolution and not unique to early 21st century Internet communications. I would suggest that embedded text in images to create what  has become known as memes has has as much impact on our language as texting by SMS or texting within apps such as Messenger, Telegram and Whatsapp.

References

Marian, V. (2023). The Power of Language: How the Codes We Use to Think, Speak and Live Transform Our Minds (1st ed., p. 284). Dutton.

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