TOK+Q3+Week+1+Commentaries

=TOK Q3 Week 1 Commentaries= . 1. Place your commentary at the top of this page (newest posts should always be on top) 2. Write your name, date and time on the line above your commentary. 3. Write an intelligent comment about the article. 4. Include a responce to another student's post on this article 5. Insert a divider (click the "insert horizontal rule" button in the menu bar above) below your post

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Ana Rivas 1/17/13

Being both an English and Spanish speaker, I can say that the points elaborated in the article are some of the things that I've noticed when comparing both of the languages, especially the gender for inanimate objects topic. When speaking Spanish every object has a gender. Before every noun, an article comes before it and it's "la" for feminine object or "el" for the masculine. While in English, we just use "the" "a" or "an". I also agree with the fact that when I hear a Spanish noun, I do characterize it with a gender and I much rather listen the masculine words in a masculine tone and feminine words in a feminine tone. Not only this is a topic discussed in the article but it was also something I definitely had thought of before.

Even though Spanish is my mother language, I can certainly say that having the genders does differ the way I look at objects and how I think of them. It also makes me think about the difficulty of learning the language would be for an English speaker because we don't apply genders to objects in the English language.

I really though that this article was quite interesting and it made me think of the different ways the mind is affected by language and how people are affected by it and the different views different languages bring to people.

@Gabrielle: I agree with your view on English as a private language but I think it's due to the fact that it's a simpler language when it comes to that. For example, I believe that learning the tenses in a language and the verbs are one of the hardest things. As said in the article, Chinese doesn't have tenses like English and Spanish making the situation more private than anything else but that is due to a simpler way of how it's said or written.

Anthea Rokop 1/17/13

After reading the article I found it very peculiar that the language one speaks molds their way of thinking. Since our "mother tongue" is embedded in our minds through society, culture, and even family, these habits affect our experiences, perceptions, associations, feelings, memories, and overall orientation in the world. The ideas towards the masculin and feminine ways of naming inanimate objects also heavily influence the way we think towards these obejects. But, do they shape our behaviors, preferences or even our everyday life? Another interesting topic involves egocentric and geographic positioning. Following the egocentric ideas of direction, we are constantly changing direction on a left/right/up/down axis that depends on our bodies. Whilst geographic positioning depends on our surroundings and they do not rotate with us wherever we turn like egocentric does. So different languages make us speak and think about space in different ways. Lastly, our langauge can affect the way we perceive colors. This is very interesting because while some people might think of blue could be another shade of blue or even a different color.

@Jean Marc Ulysse: I agree that our language can make it difficult to grasp concepts, ideas, and even views towards the world.

Camille 1/16/13 5:34 PM

Being a bilingual, I get a chance to compare the differences and similarities between Tagalog and English. There are endless of expressions and words in Tagalog that English wouldn't be able to understand and will only translate it literally (which wouldn't make any sense). I think that's what the author failed to mention in the article, the opinions of other native speakers who spoke another language. For instance, the author said that some languages don't use egocentric coordinates (left, right, etc.) or future tenses. Well, what about mentioning how English lacks different words for different expressions? In English if you wanted to say snow, there's only one word for it. However in an Eskimo-Aleut language, they have a hundred words for snow. English speakers would then ask, “Why do they have so many words for it? Isn’t that excessive?” Well, an Eskimo speaker would then reply, “Well how come you don’t have more than one word for snow? There’s slushy snow, soft snow, falling snow, snow on the ground, and more.” It would’ve been nice for the author to have added opinions of others about their views on how English is an ‘odd’ language instead of always looking other languages from an English speaker’s point of view.

There are similarities in some languages but they're not all EXACTLY the same, that's why people shouldn't think that their language is the best. Some just say English is the ‘best’ language out there because it’s one of the most common languages today. People use English at some point of their day whether it is in school, at home, stores, and even online. American cultures, especially music and film, are influencing other nations and that’s why English is able to spread around the world. However, it just means it’s more popular, not really saying it’s the best.

@Anonymous: Your point about globalization is absolutely correct. I know that native English speakers don’t mind English spreading all over the world, but how does English affect the true identity of a language? Some of my Spanish friends say they speak “Spanglish” at home just like I sometimes speak “Taglish” (Tagalog and English) with my parents. I would like to hear what you have to say about how globalization affects other nations and if it’s a good or bad thing! J

Ashley Vastag 1/16/13 8:32 AM When I began learning languages, I learned new words and the genders that came with them. I had wondered about the implications of these genders, and why they were decided, which is why I found the section of the article comparing Spanish and German so interesting. Masculine words in spanish, such as bridge and clock, were thought of by spanish people to be manly and strong. These same words were feminine in German, and the Germans described the same object as being slender and elegant. I thought it was very interesting that the gender connotations were ingrained so deeply into their thoughts about these objects, especially since the English language has no assigned genders.

@Leila: I wonder what i means for us English speakers if we don't have assigned genders? Everything is "it" so I feel like since Enligsh is so unusual compared to other european languages, our thought process when talking about objects is unusual.

Anonymous 1/15/13 9:35AM

Languages are based on a need and a desire to define and communicate. If languages develop in close proximity with one another they will define similar things and take similar forms therefore people who speak these languages will share some common knowledge through interaction and hybridization of words and syntax as well as multilingualism.

If languages develop apart from each other they will form words and ideas separately therefore there is a strong chance that they will not maintain a high level of shared knowledge or conventions.

Even in separation though the earth is not so obscure that one language should start gathering information that is so abstract that another cannot attempt to make a fair translation or interpretation of it. Words have emotive as well as descriptive power over us though which is why translations can never really capture the exact meaning of another language and what it meant to the speaker.

Knowledge is not only influenced by language but language definitely influences knowledge. When we define things we are thinking about them. As soon as something is indefinable it becomes frightening or interesting to us. This leads us to want to discover more about it. Language grows through interaction with the world and people so only when exposed to something that can be defined will it mean anything. It is possible that one language can have more exposure to something over another and therefore have more sophisticated ideas that describes it.

Language can also be influenced by a specialization of a particular activity or process so if another language does not have knowledge of this it will not have any definition. Abstract thoughts and ideas are also not usually shared between different languages when apart from one another. This includes things like time, places, philosophies, religions, cultures etc.

In today's era through globalization of technology and communication, knowledge is becoming more freely available for people of many different languages. Multilingualism is becoming more common as people fly around the world on business or immigrating to other countries. This means that languages are becoming closely linked with each other and are even borrowing words for use in everyday life. People are beginning to interact in closer proximity with each other through social networking, etc so languages is also being effected by these changes.

Jean-Marc Ulysse 1/15/2012 9:02 AM After reading this article I was interested in the differences in direction, which I thought to be a simple concept.Only to see that to some people it could be seen as an entirely new format to speakers of a cardinal based language. The article showed that it wouldn't disable us from learning something new, but would only impair our ability to grasp a concept. This was clearly demonstrated by the boy learning how to dance. Not to mention the Guguu people's ability to always know which way is North, South, East, or West is truely astonishing.

@Gabrielle: I to agree that English is more private, but it leads me to ask as in to why? Even though it is not any business of the other who we chose to hang out with, why must it be so private? @ Leila: That is an interesting point of view. However, there are certain people that have English as their mother tongue and they call their girl a she. I don't think that giving an inanimate object a gender really helps shape your feelings for that object.

Leila Becirevic 1/15/13 7:54 AM When I read this article, I realized that English is actually the language that would be considered unusual in comparison to European languages.English does not have genders for inanimate objects, which psychologists believe can shape your feelings about that object. I think that this is an interesting idea and the results of the experiments support this theory.

@Gabrielle: I had this same thought when reading this section of the article. English can be considered more private than other languages in this way.

Gabrielle Falco 1/15/13 7:52 AM It never occurred to me before that in English, the gender of the person you 'dined with' does not have to be known when discussing with someone. However, this information is obligatory when speaking in German. I find this very interesting. Not having to use the correct form for gender in English, as they have to in German, can be more private.

@Leila I realized this as well. It is interesting that providing the gender with an object can shape your feelings. Being a female, I may be more sympathetic to female objects, as I feel the roots of feminism to come through.