Language You Speak Affects the Way You Think, Essay Example

From what we speak, and hear, on our own, or from what other people have told us, we begin to believe eventually in it. It is the truth about the impact of language and way it affects human thinking. The assumption of the connection between the spoken language, and the cognition development, of an individual, is indeed a long time argument in the field of psychology, and linguistics. Case studies, based on particular experiences of individuals, actually create a distinct sense of how spoken language does create a differential factor that affects one way of thinking (Boroditsky, 2009).  In this case, since different cultures of different groups of people coming from different regions are noted to have different languages, the language that an individual speaks does affect the way he, or she, thinks.

Social construct is an ideal process of setting up the thinking development of each. It is where the foundation of the thinking development setup comes from, and how a particular language is spoken. People tend to speak the way they were brought up, in the communities they are engaged with. Most importantly, language can be differentiated among the deference social class in the community. For instance, in a community that is divided in such a way that the rich and poor members of the society live separately; there is a tendency that the structure of the languages that these groups uses will be different. For example, a rich family might be easily recognized, because of their sophisticated language. Meanwhile, those who belong to the low social class in the society are often observed to speak slang languages. Individuals coming from such separate groups are easily identified because people tend to act the way that they speak. While it is true that members of the different social class may use different linguistic varieties, it is important to note that in the real world, social class stratification is not universal.

Furthermore, the social class groups are not stable or rigidly marked and separated in the society.  Individuals are moving up and down the social hierarchy. The difference in the way they speak is complex. In addition, the differentiation of language among different class in a community that is among the rich and the poor seem to be present where great geographic distance separates those two groups. In cases where rich interact more often with the poor, any linguistic component that begins among let say the rich, will eventually affect the poor. Furthermore, data from the recent study indicates that  the use of differentiated language among different social class does not always indicate different cognitive abilities. Therefore, there is no clear relationship between language and logic thoughts. However, the fact remains that different social groups use different linguistic varieties. The internal differentiation of human societies is reflected in their language. In fact, it is possible to classify people into different social class from the way they speak.

According to Boroditsky (2009), language is a basic component of culture. It also has a great impact on how a person’s thinking process is adjusted. It is especially true when we connect with the thinking process of those surrounding us. Take, for example, an educated man, who has been taught a lot in school about theories, and lectures, to help him shape his belief about the society, and what is expected of him. His way of thinking and the fact that he is educated would easily show how he speaks. Therefore, as he speaks more about what he knows, he gets convinced, about his beliefs. However, later on, when he gets out of the classroom, and interacts with a particular set of people, with different cultural backgrounds, his process of speaking changes, especially when he experience different pieces of evidence of life, that may be different from what he has been taught in class. With time, the person tends to adjust his speaking as well as the way they think, reacts and perceives matters will also change. When a particular problem arises, he will think fully about the solution that applies to the new situation. The way he speaks about his new findings changes the foundation of his perception, therefore changing the overall process, by which he thinks (Boroditsky 2009). While this is a good example indicating how language can change the way we think, it is worth mentioning other factors are in play.

Language does not form a fundamental basis of our thinking and thus learning a new language does not fundamentally structure a different kind of thoughts, the culture does. It means that, in the example above, the thinking of the person will change after learning a new culture and not just a language.  The only way that language changes the thinking is that language is a gateway to learning a new culture. This is not to say that learning a new way of speaking is entirely useless, in changing the way we think. Language is an important gateway of learning a new culture that in turns change the way they think. Most importantly, beyond the changes in thinking that arise from the experience of learning a new culture, the process of learning a new way of speaking itself will change how they think. The learning process is especially important because it helps one to understand themselves in a way that was not possible before.

Finally, Language can psychologically affect our thinking. There are some situations when a person tends to believe lies and created stories as truth. For example, a person may be forced to lie about something for good reasons such as protecting a friend from danger, or pain, through the creation of a false story, to calm the situations. However, when they keep on repeating the lie and narrating the false story many times, there is a possibility that the person may become convinced that the story is indeed the truth. Another example is when a child starts to believe that they are foolish after a being told by either their parents or friends for some time. What happens is that the false story becomes a part of their memory and may end up altering their thinking process.

The contribution of Language to thinking is complicated. However one thing is clear, it plays an important role in shaping the way we think. Language is the way we communicate, with others, of our species. It is how we can teach, give instructions, or pass along information. A closer look will show that language is not so simple. There is more than one language in the world, and each language carries a different culture and social construct with it( Boroditsky 2009),. It leads to every individual, being affected, by different languages. The way a person speaks can quickly show which community that person belongs. Language also has a powerful effect, in psychology, as well. A white lie will trick other people, but over time, it will even trick the person, who said it. They will believe in their story. The importance of language in changing the way we think cannot be understated. However, culture forms a fundamental basis of our thinking and thus learning new culture structure different kind of thoughts and changes our thinking. Language as a tool for learning new culture has a strong effect on all individuals, both culturally, and socially and ultimately affects the way we think.

Reference

Boroditsky, L. (2009, June 11). How Does Language Shape the Way We Think? Edge. Retrieved from https://edge.org/conversation/how-does-our-language-shap-the-way-we-think.