Does learning another language change the way you think?

I am currently taking a free online course on Coursera called "Understanding Russians: Contexts of Intercultural Communication".
In one of the lectures, the professor quotes Lera Beroditsky: "Do people who speak different languages think differently about the world? Does learning new languages change the way you think? Do polyglots think differently when speaking different languages?"

See article for further exploration of this topic: http://edge.org/conversation/how-does-our-language-shape-the-way-we-think

I thought these questions might be of interest for discussion here. I definitely notice different facets to my personality that come out in the languages I speak beyond just body language: such as being more assertive while speaking Spanish and more contemplative while speaking German.
I wonder if the difference is greater for someone speaking a language outside that person's language family or perhaps does when or under what circumstances a person learned the non-native language have any influence on the expression of one's "language personality"?

Here's perhaps a better article "How Language Shapes Thought:
http://psych.stanford.edu/~lera/papers/sci-am-2011.pdf

Regarding the page you link to, the other side of the coin is presented here,

http://www.amazon.com/Language-Hoax...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1400294497&sr=1-1

hidden behind a paywall in the form of a book, haha. One argument the author makes is that the data show only tiny differences between languages in their effects on thinking. He cites numerous examples. Fascinating research to say the least. But rather trivial in practical effects. A further argument is that to buy into the full idea of profound differences regulated by the language(s) you're born into would mean some peoples are diminished by their language, others elevated, meaning pity the Mandarin speaker, or pity the English speaker, or pity the (fill in the blank speaker) -- we all can't be winners --- which tends to lead down a road you probably don't want to go. Phrenology redux, as it were.

I'd like to hear a live debate between the two camps but am not sure they're talking to each other. The book I linked is not my way of saying "believe this instead", just to note that the school of thought you linked to has its detractors. The subject is above my pay grade, also.

Learning another language as an adult imperfectly is another matter entirely. What you observe about Spanish and German I'll take your word for as your perception and experience.

But the scholars would know I think if they were in their gardens and their village. Was the little girl in a building in a different city, or outside, and if the scholars were outside would they know? In a building it's much more difficult, excepted if you can see the sun through the window.

I like to know this also, I mean about the sun where is the sunrise and especially the sunset, therfore I know north. The planst and the trees reveal it also, and by the wind, here it's normally of the southwest , or in winter the east. You can see this when you see the clouds, but also some trees are in this direction, also some plants' leaves and flowers. Outside all this things reveal it,but inside not.

or what you see because of your feeling, or your culture, or if you live in a village or a big city. Has the lady asked soem children in a little village in the US?

You learn soemthing in a langauge because it's important. In a village it;s important that you know north, but in a city if you are a scholar it's not important. If you are a gardener or an architect it's important, if you are a scholar it's not important. also, you learn this when you are a little child, if you living in a village you know, probably in a city you don't. i live in a little village.

yes, but you use what yoru culture use and therefore what you learn when you are little. this knowledge is through the langauge, of course, but to think left or right, or east or west is a very, very, extremely little difference. I know that soem people say left or right in somethings like geography, but other ones say east or west. Offically, in geopgrahpy it's east or west, but on the maps it look like right or left.​

Of course, becuase Hebrew is written right to left. it doesn't mean that the person organise differently time, but that when it's written (or cards on the table it's the same) this is the normal direction. also the Kuuk ones, east to west. I think that you can learn this interchangeably, I mean you can learn french, english etc from right to left, if you learn this wehn you are little child and you see this online, in your books etc. Or east west also, it depend of how you learn to read and write. This is the WRITTEN language's influence, not the language self.

Agency is interesting, veyr intersting. I have lessons with my teacher about agency, becuase for me, it's not always evident or I misinterpret the agent, or have a different feeling. Then, in law it's extremely important, and mostly in my family the people are lawyers.

Yes, exactly, in English it's always that the agent is said, but the biggest problem in English i find is that 'you' is 'you' diretly or generally. This is terrible!!!! Other langauges I speak have "on" or "men" or "man" or "se" and I suppose that most languages have other terms for general agency which are not the same than the 2nd person. I know that English has "one" but people say that it is seldom used.



Ok, but the worst thing in the article was the PREJUDICE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How can she think that it's the langauge's fault that the person is prejudiced, but mostly the person (and culture, politic, society etc) :

NOTE THIS: they were

has she asked the arabic hebrew bilinguals in Palestine, west bank? or in Jordan, Syria?


The last paragraph I agree and disagree :

With colour, I think that we see the colours differently. it depend of our vision. my vision is extremely good, much better that the humans oen which is about 70% average. mine is about 125% or more. But anyway, the colours, we have noticed in ym family that I see some colours in the next "category" for example blue - lilac or mauve. of course colours are a continuum. The example in the article was blue, or maybe this was in the other article I think, that the Russians differentiate between light blue and dark blue. of course this is other continuum, like blue - green.



I hope that it's ok that I've replied. I know that it's more for the people who've studied in the uni, but I find it interesting also.

I think, basically, that it's the culture (home, internet, and educaiton in yoru school) and your personal circumstances (village or city) and those things more than the language self which cause the differences seen by the lady. i think that the differences in the languages were caused by the differences in importance and perception by the culture duirng the preceding centuries. The lady has seen everyhing in the incorrect order.

She must also examine the differences within one language, for example she's in the US, but then she can see if the differences exist between the US, Canada, Britain, etc and especially about the knowing North, she must ask the same type of person: she compared a little girl in a village with some old scholars in the univerity. This is absolutely stupid. She must compare the little australian girl in a village with a little american girl in a village or she can ask the old scholars, but when they are in their own village or garden, like the girl. Or she must put the little girl in a big building in a city and ask her.

I don't disgaree that language can shape your thoughts. only the order of this becuase I think that the cultures have shaped the languages. Like the behaviour BAnna has said: that she's more assertiv in Spanish and contemplative in German. I think it's because the people have those cultures (stereotypes) and therfeore she feel this, it's not by the languages.

This is a topic with no easy answer, but I can't really claim to be an expert on the topic.

It's beyond doubt that language can affect our perception of environment (languages with different colour systems result in measurable differences in perception, and of course the cardinal/compass directions example quoted above).

On the level of personal experience, the language with the most apparent effect on my personality is Spanish, but I never thought that this was because I was in any way a different person in Spanish; instead, what happened was that I found that some Spanish people regarded me as distant and unfriendly. I modified my behaviour, but not in a way that I felt implied a change to personality -- instead I was simply trying to express the same personality in terms of the language I was speaking.

But then I started thinking that some of the openness of Spanish expression was bleeding into my projected English-speaking persona, and I wondered if language was changing my thinking, but I wasn't sure that was primarily a language issue -- I've always been a fairly introverted, closed person, and I can't say it's an enjoyable way to be. I suppose I'd just found something that was more comfortable, and decided to try to build on that.

However, it's been a few years now since I spent much time with Spanish people, and when I am with them again, I don't seem to act the same, and my closedness has returned in general. Is this because of the lack of contact with Spanish? It's impossible to say for sure, but I don't think so. There's been times in the last few years when I've been really lonely, and that's probably done more to close me down than any language could.

you are muhc more expert than me.

yes but are the differences in perception or only the name used for the colour? if you have learned separate names then you use them, if you leanred one name for both you use this name, but maybe you can see very well the differnces.

Loneliness is horrible have you a pet for example a dog? for me, my dog is truly great, i feel lonely, yes, but much less with my dog. before, sometimes loneliness caused a nasty cough, but since I've my dog I havnet the lonely-cough. I love my soft toys also but I'm 22 so when you're 22 it's not normal to have soft toys.

What makes me wonder if something else is afoot here is that your experience differs from that of BAnna. Wouldn't we expect Spanish to make us all assertive, and for German to make us all contemplative ? Will these effects show inter-rater reliability, if that's the correct term. In other words, will learning French make us all better lovers...

Hmm, I certainly did not mean to imply that my experience would apply to others/that Spanish in itself is more assertive than English, just that I have a tendency to behave more assertively while using Spanish...perhaps it is the freedom to create a different persona rather than something specific to the language being spoken.

Cultural expectations can be built into the forms of speaking a language, such as politeness forms (particularly in Japanese, for example), so there could be some language-specific effects, but perhaps merely the fact that one is interacting with/experiencing the world in a non-native language allows us to reevaluate our assumptions and open our minds to other ways of behaving.

I have read some other research articles stating that people react to "logic versus emotion" questions differently in a non-native language, implying a distancing from one's emotions when using the non-native language. I may have the details a bit wrong, but there was an example along the lines of asking the question, would you throw one person in front of an oncoming car in order to save the 5 inhabitants of the car? In one's native language, the respondents tend to agonize a bit more over the right thing to do whilst more quickly selecting the "logical" choice when using a non-native language.

On a different note, I think the comments about distinguishing colors had more to do with having language to describe what one sees, rather than the ability to actually to see the color.

Edit: found an article about morality when using another language. This was also brought up on HTLAL recently, and yes, as with all research studies, it's easy to find some holes:
Using a foreign language and moral decisions

No -- there's actual differences in perception. I saw a TV program where they demonstrated this with an African tribe with one of the most colour-poor vocabularies. They couldn't tell the difference between a certain shade of red and a certain shade of brown, although the difference was clear as day to me. But they could tell the difference between a bluey-green and a greeny-blue that I couldn't tell apart -- even after seeing which one was different.

I was reaaaally surprised by this.

How interesting that the perception of color itself is actually affected!

I've heard the old saying about the Eskimo having a hundred names for snow has been debunked, but I know as a life-long resident of the coastal southwestern US, who doesn't ski and has only seen snow fall once in my life (at the time I didn't realize at first what it was ), I don't really understand what people are talking about when they say "soft snow", "powder", "wet snow", "sleet" etc. It's all "snow" to me...
of course, variations of rain/fog/mist/drizzle, etc. are quite clear.

I don't believe that the perception of colour is affected by the language. I think that it's the other direction: those people can't differentiate particular colours therefore they haven't those different descriptions in their language.

I don't know why they can't see the same differences but it depend of the light and eyes, genetic etc etc etc , Different ethnies have differnet eyes, I mean the shape and Iris's colour. this are the visible differences, but I think that people can see different colours also. My eyes are green with very little bit brown and the others in my family have brown eyes, and we see the colours differently but we have the same native language (Belgian French). the differences are not caused by the language but by other things.

What the people can do, learn and everything influence the language much more than the language influence the people.

You must put a baby from a different culture who can see those colour's differences in the African tribe. Then when the baby is older you must test him and see if he can see those differences. I don't believe that the langauge can prevent that you see certain colours.

But the languages can do other things, and for sure it's completely different when you learn, think, speak etc the foreign ones and not your native language. the foreign ones havnet the connection with your soul, for example.

Good example. I've always been sceptical of attempts to apply conclusions from the study of colours to things like emotional responses and ways of thinking. Colour is an environmental stimulus, but emotion isn't. For language to be an extension of the environment seems straightforward and easy to accept. But how much are our emotions coloured by our environment, though? I don't know.

The human eye is very well understood. If there were genetic differences in eye types, they would most likely have been identified by now.

Besides, if you look at the traditional colour naming of your ancestors, you'll find that certain shades in your vocabulary did not exist until relatively recently. The most specialised colours are pink, purple and orange, as I understand it. This is why the colour orange has the same name as the fruit in most European languages: it was a new colour introduced with the fruit (carrots weren't orange until someone selectively bred them to honour the Dutch royal house -- there wasn't really any significant orange thing in Europe before the orange).

In fact, I'm genetically descended from mostly Gaelic-speaking stock if you go back half-a-dozen generations, and the Gaelic languages have a completely different encoding of greens, blues and greys from English (3 words, but completely different boundaries), as well as two reds, one of which traditionally encompasses many browns and oranges.

If there was a genetic factor behind it, most of Scotland and Ireland would have serious problems discussing colours in English, and we don't.

In fact, the programme I watched suggested that the only colour that was hard-wired into our brains was red, with green and blue sensitivity coming later in our evolution, and being wired up quite loosely, and therefore open to subjective interpretation by the brain. All very fascinating stuff.

Emotions are coloured by many diverse things for example chemicals in your brain and body, your thyroid, dopamine, etc etc etc by your circumstances in your life, by meds, by your calm or panic, by the opportunities or exclusion that you encounter, by the stress, by noise, light, the weather, by what you read, by other people, by the birds and animals, by your succes or failure, by your blood pressure, by how you sleeping, by your childhood, by your genes, your self confidence, fears, by your motivation or tiredness, by so many things it would be some yeasr for make a complete list. To feel too strongly emotions or to not feel them at all are both terrible.

But colours affect my feeling also, not for you? I like pink, blue, green, I hate orange, but when it's between red and yellow I like it. I hate grey. I hate the colour between pink and orange, I nearly vomit when i see this colour. I love the colour between blue and mauve, but when it's too much lilac it's sharp, it's pretty but not soft like the more blue one.

I've heard that the people living in the deserts have many words for different sand, the types, formations etc. But if you live there when you are a little child, it's normal that you will learn it. I can imagine that the Inuits have more words for describe snow, 100 maybe not but more that in west Europe. The skiiers have more also. Where I live, we have some snow during some weeks every winter (not this winter, it was very mild) but I know only few words in my own language for this, for example large flakes. I know that wet snow is different and sleet, yes such things. It's funny that you didn't know what it was haha You are fortunate, it's stupid and inconvenient, I want some snow on Christmas but not more LOL.

"Dr Costa and his colleagues interviewed 317 people, all of whom spoke two languages—mostly English plus one of Spanish, Korean or French. Half of each group were randomly assigned the dilemma in their native tongue. The other half answered the problem in their second language. When asked in their native language, only 20% of subjects said they would push the fat man. When asked in the foreign language, the proportion jumped to 33%."

The Economist
Language and morality: Gained in translation

I couldn't push the fat man, or any person or animal at all. I cry and feel so bad and guilty if I hurt accidentally for example a ladybug or a worm in the garden.

It's murder, so they ask those people if they can or would murder a person.

It has been claimed that the ancient Greeks didn't use colours to describe their surroundings, and the translator of Harry Potter vol 1 into Ancient Greek supports this by describing the problems he had finding ways to translate a text which is brimfull of colour references. But is that a sign that their eyes didn't have the ability to see things we call blue? Off course not, they just described their world in other ways - including the notorious Homerian description of the sky as bronze coloured (!) But really, what can you expect from an allegedly blind man? I don't describe my world in religious terms, but read a Medieval text and you will see how religious imagery and references permeated everything they wrote. That doesn't make be think that they had a separate department in their brain for such things. They just had different manners and a different frame of reference.