Task 2: Does language shape the way we think?

Language shapes the way we think, perceive, and interact with the world, often in ways we don’t even realize. In response to Lera Boroditsky’s 2017 SAR lecture, I have selected six key statements that resonated with me personally, exploring how they connect to my own experiences, observations, and understanding of language, culture, and cognition.

[00:48] Dr. Boroditsky mentions “What I’m doing right now is I’m producing tones and hisses and puffs with my mouth while exhaling and those are creating air vibrations that are travelling toward view impinging on your eardrums vibrating your eardrums and then from those vibrations your brain is reconstituting that signal into thoughts.” 

 

This quote beautifully unpacks the complex process of communication, reducing it to its physical elements. At the same time it demonstrates how intricate and connected our thoughts and physical senses are and how advanced the brain must be to process it. I am struck by how easily we take for granted something as “ordinary” as speaking. Carl Sagan’s idea that “we are a way for the universe to know itself” resonates with me as language is perhaps the easiest way to see this quote manifested in reality. It makes me wonder: What does this  reveal about the limits of human perception and understanding? Are there universal ideas or concepts that are inaccessible to us because of the way our brains have evolved to process language?

 

[12:31 – 13:30] Dr. Boroditsky mentions “The past is in front of us, and the future is behind, for some cultures. This is because the past is known and you can see it. The future is unknown, that’s why it’s behind your head. Now time doesn’t just have to be on the horizontal axis it can acquire new dimensions so for example in Mandarin the past is up and the future is down.”

 

This statement challenged a fundamental assumption I didn’t even know I held – that time is universally perceived as moving forward with the past behind, and future ahead. The notion that other cultures might conceptualize, and perhaps perceive time differently, has been humbling and illuminating. As someone who has lived in China for 3 years, and now in Japan, I am shocked that I had not come across this concept in the past. While I am used to writing and reading from left to right, I have witnessed the vertical and right to left writing in Japanese and Chinese; however I had never connected this to anything beyond written words on a page, yet alone an understanding of time. It makes me wonder how many other concepts that I am not familiar with or understand are happening in the people’s minds around me as I sit in a Tokyo cafe writing this paragraph. I am reminded about the importance of cultural empathy and curiosity and the value of multilingualism. 

 

[18:27] Dr. Boroditsky mentions “When you teach people to talk a new way, you’re teaching them to think a new way as well.”

 

While the idea that language shapes our worldview is not new to me, hearing it in this context has given me fresh insight into my own experiences. Since starting my role as a Technology Coach at an International School in Japan, I have noticed just how much the language we use influences the way we think, interact, and define our professional culture. Every school, like every culture, has its own “lingo” that can be overwhelming for incoming staff. At first, this is always a practical challenge to overcome in order to function within the school. However, at my current school, an incredibly strong emphasis is placed on the importance of the language that we use. This is to ensure we create the mindset and school culture that we want to develop. At first I was annoyed, as I felt like I was being confined and forced to speak in a way that was unnatural to me. An example of this is that we often refer to our High School students as “IB” or “DP” students (International Baccalaureate Diploma Program). It was brought to our attention that we should not use this language as it excludes the students who are not enrolled in this program and to instead call them “High School Students”. While it seemed pedantic at the time, it has changed the way we think about those students and ensures that we are developing an inclusive and supportive environment. This connects with the quote in that it demonstrates how, when we change the way we speak, we inevitably change the way we think. It also reminds me of the power of education and that as an educator, everything I do and say is being observed by students who are learning from me. What I say, and how I say it, is influencing my students’ learning and understanding of the world around them.

 

[19:04] Dr. Boroditsky mentions languages place boundaries for color differs from language to language. 

 

This was an enlightening statement to think about. While I have known that people have different ways of saying different hues of colors, I was not aware that some cultures may have different boundaries of actual “colors” such as blue and green, as Dr. Boroditsky later mentions in the video. As someone who is red/green colorblind, color accuracy has never been my strong suite. One of my favorite things to ask high school students when we talk about perception and the limits of human cognition is to “imagine a new color”. You can’t, right? This exercise leads to interesting discussions about the constraints of human perception and the ways language can reinforce those boundaries. If we can’t imagine a color that doesn’t already exist in our linguistic framework, how much of our reality is shaped or limited by the words we have available to describe it? Dr. Boroditsky’s point makes me wonder: If different languages define colors differently, does that mean speakers of those languages literally see the world differently? As someone who is colorblind, I already experience the world through a slightly different lens, and this realization makes me even more curious about how language and biology together shape perception. Is what we consider “universal” may, in fact, subjective and culturally constructed?

 

[32:19] Dr. Boroditsky mentions speakers of different languages witness exactly the same event but come away remembering different things about that event. 

 

This stuck out to me as it demonstrates the importance of being empathetic and understanding of others’ perspectives. Even if we are “experiencing” the same thing, are we really? If our brains are interpreting everything on an individual level, and the language we use to make sense of it is different and personalized to each individual, then do we ever really take part in a shared “experience”? This statement also reminds me of just how unreliable our memories are. I love the concept of memory reconsolidation; that when we remember something, we are actually rewriting that memory with our current emotions, knowledge, and external influences. Thus, the more we remember something, the more it can stray from its original form. This in turn means that our memories may not be exact recordings of our lives but rather ever changing narratives, shaped by language and perspective. How much of what we “remember” is influenced by our personal biases and the words or language we use to remember them? 

 

[42:24] Dr. Boroditsky mentions our languages and cultures are useful guidebooks to the world, ways of compressing the infinite amount of information you would otherwise need to figure out how to address. On the other hand cultures also reduce cognitive entropy what I mean by that is we are able to think about the world and conceptualize the world in many many many different ways but we usually don’t do all of those different ways right we never think to look about how we could think about things differently we just do things the way that we’re used to doing them in our languages in our cultures once you get into one of those trenches you don’t think to kind of dig out of the trench and see what other possibilities are. 

 

I love this comment by Dr. Boroditsky as I think explains a lot of what we are seeing in the world at the moment in regard to political polarization and a shift toward right-leaning parties. The notion that “people don’t go into the trenches to see what other possibilities are” is something that I have observed within my own family and friends. When one does not take the time to seek out and understand others, and instead sits in an echo chamber of their own thoughts by interacting only with those who share similar viewpoints to them, it’s impossible for someone to change their mind or perspective. Without being exposed to other ways of thinking, whether that be a language or a different cultural framework or lived experience, people become entrenched in their own cognitive habits. This cycle of reinforcement where beliefs are not questioned and alternative viewpoints are seen as threatening, diminishes the ability to empathize with others. Dr. Boroditsky’s point makes me reflect on the importance of experiencing new cultures, languages, and perspectives. If language and culture are guidebooks to the world, then the more of them we can read and experience, the deeper and more nuanced our understanding of reality will become.

Citations

Boroditsky, L. (2011). How language shapes thought. Scientific American, 304(2), 62-65.