General chat about mystery beauty of language 🗨️

Jayce

hey folks, so I was sitting on my back porch last night, sipping some chamomile tea and doing some evening thinking. my mind somehow wandered to languages, you know? like, all those thousands of languages that we have developed around the globe. it’s wild, isn’t it?

think about it, every culture, every community, every country has its own unique way of expressing themselves. and it goes beyond the literal words too. the tone, the rhythm, the gestures, it’s all a part of our communication system. more fascinating is how different languages affect our perspective of the world. like the way Eskimos have so many words for ‘snow’, simply because it forms a huge part of their surroundings and lifestyle.

it’s a bit like… you ever tried explaining the colour ‘blue’ to someone? it’s almost impossible to explain it without comparing it to something else, right? now imagine a language with no word for ‘blue’ - would the people still see it? recognize it? or if a language has no future tense, do its speakers think differently about future events?

has anyone out there actually gone and learned a new language as an adult? if so, how’s it influenced your thinking or your perspective on things? or hey, anyone here bilingual from childhood? does switching between languages ever bring out different aspects of your personality?

also, did you ever come across a word or phrase in another language that just doesn 🤔

lsmith

Oh man, this really hits home for me. Grew up bilingual - English and Spanish. It’s funny you ask about the personality thing, ’cause sometimes I do feel a bit different when I slip into Spanish. Seems like I’m a little more laid back, more comfortable maybe?

Learning a new language as an adult was tough, but it broadened my worldview. I learned Mandarin in my 30s out of pure fascination. You’d be amazed how the concept of respect is embedded within the language. Made me more mindful of my communication.

And about that mysterious ‘blue’ bit, there’s a color in Japanese, ‘ao’, people kinda translate it as blue but it can include green too. Makes you realize how arbitrary our labels can be. Super cool you’re thinking about this stuff. We’re all just trying to connect, right?

jwizz

Ah, I feel you on the whole having a different persona in another language thing! I speak English and French and boy am I a lot sassier when I switch to French! Ain’t that a hoot?

Learning a new language does really make you rethink the world in a whole new way. I remember being blown away by how Japanese uses the same word for green and blue. Like, can you imagine standing on a hill looking out at the sea and the grass and just thinking… yup, all of that’s blue. Mind-bending for sure!

Keep sharing these nuggets. It’s great to see such appreciation for languages and how they shape us. After all, we’re all a beautiful mishmash of words and experiences, aren’t we?