Saturday, July 4, 2020

Does Language influence the way we think?


https://www.ted.com/talks/lera_boroditsky_how_language_shapes_the_way_we_think

I was recently talking to a young friend of mine who is pursuing an internship where she is making small videos on teaching younger children on developing their writing skills. I was very impressed at how she was able to communicate the idea of using imagery in writing in a simple and elegant manner, keeping in mind that her target audience would be middle-school children. After I finished congratulating her on her extremely effective video, I started thinking about how language, not only allows us to express our experience of our existence, but also is very powerful in shaping our thoughts and feelings about our experiences. Language, literally, shapes how we think and feel about our lives, our work and our relationships and therefore determines our behavior.

The common perception is that we think and thereafter,  speak.  I came across a TED Talk by Dr. Lera Boroditski which sheds light on a provocative premise – that the language we speak shapes the way we think. And the manner, in which we speak and think, therefore influences all aspects of our life, especially how we view our own experiences and our relationship with the world we inhabit.  According to Dr. Boroditski, the underlying structure of different languages, which make up the rules for a language, will determine how people will think in that language. You can watch her TED Talk by clicking on the link under her picture. 

She gives a fascinating example of how,  in certain languages, there are no words for exact numbers. Consider that the realm of Mathematics and all the disciplines based on numeric concepts would not be accessible to people who grow up in such a culture. How does a person from such a culture relate to another person who is able to express their reality in mathematical terms? In our globalized world, where we live and work with people from different cultures, the need to find ways to communicate effectively becomes critical, especially when we care about certain outcomes. When we change the way we speak, we change the way we think, and in turn change our lives and the lives of those who are significant in our work or personal lives. And what about the written word? That question opens up a whole other world of how the written word impacts someone differently from the spoken word.

One day, I was talking to my mentor about a particular problem I was having with someone and as I described my conversation, I said the following, “I should start to do what she tells me.” He stopped me immediately and asked me to examine my use of the word, “Should”. Instead he suggested to me to try the same sentence with the word “Could” instead of the word “Should” and asked me how I felt when I said the same sentence with the change he suggested. I experienced a slight expansion in the way I felt. From feeling compelled to do what was asked of me, now I was able to detect a slight possibility of a choice in the matter. As I experienced the feeling of having a choice, I felt liberated. I restated the sentence again with the word “Could” and felt that I could choose to act in a certain way or not. That immediately empowered me rather than making me feel I was forced to do something.

How may we change our language to influence our thinking and expand it? Stay tuned for further articles.

Harini Narayan is a certified Master-practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Life Coach. This is the first in a series of articles on how to use our language to have better outcomes. You can reach her at harini@cruciblelearning.com for coaching and workshops.

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