Hi, everyone!
Here is my announcement of the second half of practice for September 21.
Title: "How language shapes the way we think."
Genre: Discussion
I will show you a video presentation of Cognitive scientist Lera Boroditsky first. According to her, there are about 7,000 languages spoken around the world -- and they all have different sounds, vocabularies and structures. But do they shape the way we think? She shares examples of language -- from an Aboriginal community in Australia that uses cardinal directions instead of left and right to the multiple words for blue in Russian -- that suggest the answer is a resounding yes. "The beauty of linguistic diversity is that it reveals to us just how ingenious and how flexible the human mind is," Boroditsky says. "Human minds have invented not one cognitive universe, but 7,000."
Then, I would like you to share your opinion on the following items.
1. What did you think of her presentation?
2. When you compare Japanese speakers to English speakers, have you ever felt that the difference in thinking and behavior might be caused by the language?
3. Could you provide some examples of characteristic ways of thinking and behavior that Kansai dialect seems to influence?
Hope you'll enjoy the practice!
Makoto NISHIMURA