Does learning a second language change the way we think? How? - Page 2 - Historum

**MrKap** · February 12th, 2012, 08:17 PM

It pretty tough to accept it at face value for what they are trying to say.

A Bull is a Cow.

I would guess kids in Alberta when asked what gender a cow was versus what gender a bull was they might get it right.

As for how language effects how we think. I might be more inclined to believe it is societal factors which influence how we perceive genders in animals, and even inanimate objects.

What gender is a flower?

What gender is a car? (do people begin to associate love for an inanimate object as something female in gender as they age?)

Does the age of the person effect how they perceive the gender? Or is it the language itself?

Maybe it's best not to call females, especially your mother a cow? Maybe it's respectful to a certain degree to give non-special inanimate objects a male assignment?

All things considered, I wonder what kind of effect formalizations embedded into a language teach. Such as Mr, or Mrs, as opposed to Frank and Beverly. English has very few of these rules, but Japanese is said to have a significant amount.

Honorific_speech_in_Japanese

How we think as a result of learning multiple languages? I like the theory of "neurons that fire together, wire together".

Donald O. Hebb - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hebbian Theory

Hebbian_theory

Quote:

"The general idea is an old one, that any two cells or systems of cells that are repeatedly active at the same time will tend to become 'associated', so that activity in one facilitates activity in the other." (Hebb 1949, p. 70)

In any event, I do remember French being a mandatory subject in grade school. The masuline and feminine differences were emphasized. Other than that, they pulled me from it, only to dump me back into immersion 2 years late. I have a sour taste for french as a result. But I love Frenchies.

**Frank81** · March 4th, 2012, 05:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jake10

This comes up a great deal in Hong Kong, where all students are forced to learn English. Some enjoy it and try to explore a great deal more, while others detest it, making me believe that learning another language is very valuable, but it is not meant for everyone.

One slight change we'll be seeing in the next few decades, however, deals with western children in China studying Chinese. Up until now, these kids were sent to English schools, where they might learn some Chinese as a second language, but the emphasis on Chinese was very low. Now, some western parents are sending their kids to local Chinese schools that have no English. I wonder how they'll turn out.

Wow! American Boy Speaks Mandarin Chinese in China - YouTube

**Jake10** · March 4th, 2012, 06:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frank81

Wow! American Boy Speaks Mandarin Chinese in China - YouTube

I wonder how the poeple around him will react. He seems to have a Chinese cultural identity. It would be interesting to compare him with his peers as time goes by.

**Lors** · March 5th, 2012, 04:56 AM

Chechen people have four genders: female, male, and two types of things. Not sure how the knowing that "bride" is "du" (thing) but wife is "yu" (female g.) could possibly affect us.

**Jake10** · May 17th, 2012, 12:03 AM

The way we make decisions changes depending on the language we think in:

Quote:

People are more likely to take favorable risks if they think in a foreign language, the study showed. “We know from previous research that because people are naturally loss averse, they often forgo attractive opportunities,” said University of Chicago psychologist Boaz Keysar, a leading expert on communication. “Our new findings demonstrate that such aversion to losses is much reduced when people make decisions in their non-native language.”

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**irishcrusader95** · May 17th, 2012, 02:51 AM

i can see it broadening a persons mind and maybe making them more tolerant as it introduces them to a different culture.

**Yorgos** · May 17th, 2012, 03:18 AM

I have learned three foreign languages and that offered me wide open doors to other cultures, ideas, perspectives, feelings. I would not be me if it weren't for my bad English, my way better French and my Spanish. I happen to teach also French in schools in Greece and I see the same transformation, the same oppening of new perspectives to all my students. Language is thinking and feeling and letting other people know what you feel and what you think. It is also allowing yourself to know what others think and feel. The very idea of other means to escape to what would be commonly offered to form your personnality and embrace a new vision of tolerance.

In my opinion, it is better to speak a foreign language than to study philosophy. It is more efficient and more deep.

Having realized that, I plan to understand a very difficult language, such as Japanese or Hebrew or Arab or Turkish. All of them non indo-european, by the way.

**Zeno** · May 17th, 2012, 03:32 AM

Yes it changes the way i think. At the least the way i think about language in general or the languages i get to taste. I learnt through comparing with other languages that in Dutch we really cut through the vowels with our consonants, giving the typical staccato effect. English, for example, is much more "flowing" to my ears.

Elena · May 17th, 2012, 10:33 AM

The more languages you know, the better access to information you have, the less indoctrinated you are.

PubliusBassus · May 17th, 2012, 11:10 AM

Recent research shows that raising bilingual children - even from infancy - confers real neurological advantages. We're raising our kids to be bilingual (my wife is from Spain). It's amazing that at 21 months he knows more Spanish than I do and his prononciation is perfect in both languages.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/sc...versation.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/op...ingualism.html