Background Context for My Connections to the Video
The previous MET course I took was ETEC 542, Culture and Communication in Virtual Environments. Because language is a major part of culture and communication, there were many connections between what I learned in that course and the content of the video’s for this week’s learning.
My language abilities are somewhat varied but limited. The first language I learned to speak was Polish. I spoke Polish until I started elementary school. After that, I was pulled from regular classes into ESL classes and learned English over my first few years of school. Once I started learning English, I did not want to speak Polish anymore. After a few years, I refused to speak Polish at all. I deeply regret this as an adult but at the time I was just a kid who wanted to fit in.
In 2009, I started taking Spanish classes because I was planning an epic backpacking adventure through South America. This experience was impactful because at the time I was an ESL Instructor and learning Spanish gave me a taste of what it is like to learn a new language. In addition, traveling through South America with beginner abilities in Spanish also gave me a small taste of what it’s like to live somewhere but only understand a small part of the language. This helped me to deepen the empathy I have for the newcomers I taught.
Task 2
11:34 – In this part of the video, Dr. Boroditsky talks about how people experience and talk about time. For example, in cultures where languages are written left to write, people think about time moving from left to write. I learned this fact last semester in ETEC 542, and I was shocked because I never considered that time could be seen in a different direction, and I thought this feeling of time directionality was universal.
18:27 – Dr. Boroditsky states that “When you teach people to talk in a new way, you’re teaching them to think in a new way as well”. This statement encapsulates teaching and coaching for me. Most often when we are facilitating a class or coaching a student, we are trying to expand their understanding of the world and think in new ways. I used to be a Financial Empowerment (i.e., financial literacy) Facilitator and Coach. My whole job was to challenge and broaden participants’ understanding of financial concepts and their relationship with money. Teaching people to think in new ways is an example of transformative learning, another concept I learned in ETEC 542 and other MET classes.
27:26 – Dr. Boroditsky talks about how words are used to frame events and understanding of what happened. Here as well as in the Wikitongues (2014) video, we learn about the power of language, the politicization of words, and how words reflect the cultural zeitgeist and norms of a particular cultural group. I instantly thought of the “Here, fixed that headline for you” memes I often see online which show sexist headlines crossed out and replaced with new text. This blog post shows a few examples.
29:42 – Dr. Boroditsky gives an example of reflexive verbs in Spanish that indicate more specifically who completed an action such as breaking one’s arm. When I was learning Spanish, reflexive verbs were taught in the third level of the program. I struggled a lot with understanding reflexive verbs and never really got the hang of them. This also relates to a statement later in the video (1:00:10) where she talks about how when something doesn’t exist in your language, it is difficult for you to learn in the new language.
33:18 – Here Dr. Boroditsky speaks to agentive and non-agentive phrases. I have learned that in both at work and at home it is often wise to use non-agentive language as using agentive language can feel like blame is being assigned and people can become defensive. For example, instead of saying “You did not do X task” I say “X task was not completed. Would you mind taking care of that?”
44:29 – Dr. Boroditsky states “cultures also reduce cognitive entropy” meaning that our cultural views can narrow our ways of seeing and being. We swim in culture. It is hard to see or understand what we don’t see or other possible ways of being. There are many assumptions we unknowingly make about the universality of our experiences that are simply untrue. Dr. Boroditsky also brings this up a few minutes earlier in the video at 34:12 when she talks about math and number systems around the world. I have to say that I love the base 27 example using the upper body to count. “Honey, can you get a wrist-pack of beer please?”
53:35 – Dr. Boroditsky talks about how reading fiction improves people’s theory of mind. When reading about the definition of theory of mind, I come to understand it as a mix of empathy and cultural competence/intelligence. Many people do not have the privilege to travel and live in various countries, but many people can get a library card for free and travel through the power of books. I love to read because I can get fully engrossed in another place and time in the comfort of my home.
Dr. Boroditsky follows up at 54:14 by stating “The more broad your set of experience is…the more flexible and open minded you seem to become”. This statement is so powerful. First, we live in diverse cultural groups, and we need open minds to solve complex global and social issues. Second, as educators we need to provide diverse experiences and viewpoints to our learners so that they can further open their minds and be successful, productive citizens.
55:08 – Dr. Boroditsky talks about babies acquiring language and specifically talks about how it takes kids learning Slavic languages about 13 years to get to adult-like proficiency. As mentioned previously, I stopped speaking Polish as a kid. In my early 20s, I was visiting my cousin in Poland and talking Polish with her friends. They said I spoke the cutest form of Polish because I was using child-like phrases and words.
Putting it all Together
The videos in this week’s module all spoke to the power of text, whether it is written, oral or kinesthetic. Text is not only weaving words or symbols or actions together. It is weaving history, the present, politics, power, cultures, subcultures, assumptions, and all kinds of other elements together. Text is not neutral or static. It is living and evolving every day. Text is participatory. We all use text and add our own spin to it.
References
O’Connor, A. (2016, November 5). Sexist headlines. Daily Edge. https://www.dailyedge.ie/sexist-headlines-3057112-Nov2016/
SAR School for Advanced Research. (2017, June 7). Lera Boroditsky, how the languages we speak shape the way we think [Video]. YouTube.
TEDx Talks. (2016, February 26). Oral tradition in the age of smart phones | Alexander MacDonald | TEDxFulbrightDublin [Video]. YouTube.
Theory of mind. (2023, September 13). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_mind
Wikitongues. (2014, September 21). WIKITONGUES: Christine speaking Shetlandic [Video]. YouTube.