Lesson 2 - Does language shape how you think?

This is a lesson in which you are all have much more expertise than me, language. Start by considering the two quotations from Charlemagne and Shakespeare opposite. Which do you agree with more?

We are simply going to consider three questions:

1. What does language reveal about culture and power?

2. Does language limit what you can think?

3. Is there still any point in learning another language? 

As aways you are encouraged to look at the links  below to take these ideas further. 

'To have a second language is to have a second soul'.

'What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.'

---

Further reading and resources

On language, culture and power.

On sporting metaphors in English ​
www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/they-think-its-all-over
 
On untranslatable words 
www.rocketlanguages.com/blog/20-of-the-worlds-most-beautiful-untranslatable-words

---

---

On linguistic relativity or the Whorf-Sapir hypothesis

For a summary of the current research and debates
​www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jan/29/how-words-influence-thought

How the film Arrival got everyone thinking about Whorfism.
io9.gizmodo.com/how-arrival-turned-linguistics-into-one-of-the-most-gri-1789009881

George Orwell's 'Newspeak' a fictional treatment of Whorfism from 1984. 'If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought' 

---

On multilingualism

On the advantages of bilingualism
thebilingualadvantage.com/what-is-bilingualism-2/advantages/
​https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21428631-800-bilingual-brain-boost-two-tongues-two-minds/ 
​https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230302-can-dyslexia-change-in-other-languages