Language and Thought: How Language Shapes Thinking

Language allows humans to transmit complicated thoughts to one another. There are about 7,000 languages spoken around the world, which differ in sounds, vocabularies, and structures. Does the language we speak shape the way we think? Recent research shows that it does. For example, the Kuuk Thaayorre people in Australia use cardinal directions instead of left and right, and people who speak languages like this stay oriented better. Languages also differ in how they divide up the color spectrum, how they describe events, and how they assign grammatical gender. Language can have big, deep, early, broad, and personal effects on the way we think.1. One language is lost per week and half of the world's languages will disappear in the next 100 years. 2. Studies on human mind and brain are primarily based on American English-speaking undergraduates. 3. This excludes a significant portion of the world's population. 4. Knowledge about human mind is narrow and biased. 5. Speakers of different languages think differently. 6. Language shapes the way people think. 7. The language one speaks gives an opportunity to think differently. 8. People can ask themselves why they think the way they do. 9. People can think differently and create new thoughts. 10. The speaker concludes by thanking the audience.