Linking Assignment – Task 2
Task 2: Does language shape the way we think?
Classmate: Jamie Zhu
Link: https://blogs.ubc.ca/zhu540/2025/01/21/task-2-does-language-shape-the-way-we-think/

I chose Jamie Zhu’s Task 2 post for my first item and site to link to for the Linking Assignment. I appreciated some of the design choices that Jamie made that differed from mine, and the personal examples related to Dr. Boroditsky’s speech helped solidify my learning and further my thinking regarding some of the questions I posed in my Task 2 assignment.

Website Design and Content Display
Jamie and I used WordPress sites to post our tasks; however, our chosen format and display options differ. Jaime’s page prioritizes navigation, with the homepage consisting of square icons that lead to each task and a left dropdown menu. A “Home” button is also displayed as her homepage’s web address in the top right corner. I appreciate this “you can’t miss it approach” with a multitude of navigation options. In contrast, I have chosen a single top-bar navigation. I chose this format so that regardless of which task you view, mapping to another task is always clear and available.

Specific to the layout of Task 2, Jaime has emphasized the quotes she chose from Dr. Boroditsky’s talk by placing them in bold, using direct quotations along with the time stamp. I find Jaime’s version of Task 2 better organized and easier to follow than my own, which integrated Dr. Boroditsky’s ideas in a less apparent way.

Task 2 Content
Jaime shares her perspective as an individual who immigrated to Canada from China when they were six. This perspective is different from mine, being born in Canada. Due to Jaime’s experience speaking both Chinese and English, she had numerous first-hand examples to provide and experiences to draw from that echoed the concepts Dr. Boroditsky highlighted. Jaime shared how her awareness of body language cues and phrasing shifts when speaking in Chinese, reinforcing Dr. Boroditsky’s identified connections between language and thinking.

While Jaime and I didn’t select the same quotations or timestamps, the concepts we chose to focus on were similar. I had wondered about the impact on bilingual individuals’ ability to speak in their language of preference. Jamie’s comments about feeling limited in what she can express in Chinese (compared to English), both in finding the right words and communicating emotion, are similar to what I had observed with my Ukrainian-speaking friend. Reflecting on what Jaime expressed, it may be more about the level of comfort with the language and ability to be understood than about similar ways of thinking; however, this may contribute to being understood.