

Studying French at home in my basement probably wouldn’t have changed my outlook just because of the phonemes and grammar patterns. But this was almost certainly a cultural trait I absorbed, rather than a linguistic one. I found that living in France and learning French made me appreciate experiences more, as North America tends to be more ambition-oriented than southern France. Culture offers a different identity and perspective that tends to be more homogenous within a group of people who all speak the same language. Cultures do differ dramatically, even if people are fairly similar on a fundamental level, psychologically speaking. The big way that learning a new language changes your thinking is that language is a gateway to culture.
#I think you are in spanish plus
But, again, it’s a nuance in expression, the same fundamental thoughts can be conveyed fairly equally in most languages, plus or minus a bit of brevity. In poetic terms that can be useful, allowing you to carefully select one word that embraces slightly different overlaps of meaning than one which can exist in English. Languages also have expressions and words for concepts that don’t match one-to-one. The same idea could equally be expressed in English, perhaps just a little more verbose. When it is true, it’s usually in fairly uninteresting ways.Īsian languages, for example, have more precise words for relatives than English, so your mother’s older sister’s children have a more precise name than “cousin” in English. This all means that the strong version that people suggest-that learning a new language fundamentally structures different kinds of thoughts one can have, is mostly false. Assuming I was equally fluent, discussing chemistry, philosophy or sitcom television in Mandarin shouldn’t have any real difference from discussing it in Spanish.
#I think you are in spanish full
Modern, major world languages which have millions of speakers must cope with the full diversity of human experience and activity. When an easy word or expression is lacking, one is invented or imported from other languages. Language is a tool that fills the needs of its speakers.

Known popularly as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, this idea is also probably false.

One extreme view is that language forms the fundamental basis of our thinking and, therefore, certain linguistic systems make particular thoughts unthinkable or completely different. Does Language Fundamentally Alter Thought? Do you become more passionate while thinking in Spanish? More respectful thinking in Korean? More open to enjoying experiences thinking in French? A number of readers have asked me, now that I’m learning language number six, whether learning new languages changes how you think.
