There's so many people who say that when you're learning a new language it's better not to focus on the rules and grammar at first And I do see their point behind that but that's most of the reason I learn new languages - I think all the different rules are really interesting
Hey, with the language I speak, I can even see infinite space and temporal dimensions! I can see the backrooms with my eyes, I can see the heat death of the universe, everything!
In Portuguese there are two "be" verbs: "ser" and "estar." "Ser" is for permanent traits and generalizations. While "estar" is for temporary states, emotions, and locations. To be honest, it surprised me when I started learning English that it wasn't the same way
I speak 5 languages and feel a bit different when I speak each of them! I'm more confident in italian, more depressed in french, more nervous in spanish, more arrogant in greek and more serious in english xD
Im bilingual french/english and i do have different personnalities based on the language. However it's not related to the language itself, the personnalities varies based on how i learned the language. In french i am very much like my parents, but in english i am way more open and less emotional because i mostly learned it from the internet.
i speak 5 languages Hindi, Marathi, Gujurati, English and French, there is a difference in mood while speaking any of them...but I like speaking English and Gujarati because that's what i am more comfortable compared to other languages
So I am Dutch, but also was exposed to English at a young age (in religious context) and German, Germany was just 15 minute drive with the car. And historically and linguistically Dutch is a Germanic language. These three feel all natural to me, and it is hard to say which is my "First", in order. German feels most strange because I can get lost with certain words, een Kreis/Kreisverkehr vs roundabout and rotonde. German will have me thinking the most. Also with the grammar. I can read it fine, writing it .... not that used to that anymore. But then also with the languages that have similarities; how do you write them? Where spelling mishaps might take place. Even if Dutch is my first and native language for a period in my life I thought in English, and I at times could express my internal thoughts and feelings better in English. But that was the more dominant social group in the context of my life at that time.
I speak 4 languages and I was actually perplexed when i realised that my behavior and the way i talk changes automatically when i switch to another language, and I thought "No, That might be an accident!"... But I found out that this was actually true from this video! Thanks a lot to the Sprouts team forcovering this topic. Amazing job, guys!
@@armandaneshjoo I'm not saying that you're wrong, because I DON'T have the evidence to back that up. But to understand better, I AM gonna find the places where I don't understand how your point make sense If so much evidence denies language shaping thought, what explains people's different personalities in various languages? Or English getting more convictions If so much evidence indicates thought shaping language, that doesn't make sense. Not all English speakers think the same way. Not all English speakers think differently from all Spanish speakers. For this to be true, there would have to be one thought process for every language and in fact there's closer to idk 4 billion?
@@armandaneshjoo I don't know what the real answer is but I can promise it's NOT geography There's COUNTLESS people who say they have a slightly different personality depending on which language they're currently speaking. But their location didn't change - only their personality Dude most English speakers do NOT think the same way. I guess, to be clear, they do, but that's a human thing, not a English thing. You've provided zero evidence and my only logical conclusion to come to is that you have no idea what you're talking about
@@armandaneshjoo Dude I literally told you I don't HAVE any evidence to provide that's why I'm questioning you It makes zero sense for me to speak English because I think like an English speaker. I just HAPPEN to have been born with the correct mindset to speak English. It makes DRASTICALLY more sense for me to think like an English speaker because everyone around me has done that since I was born and that's just how I learned I clearly didn't explain this very well in my last comment - I'm not denying that people think differently depending on their language. I'm denying that it's the different thought processes that determine the language, and claiming, like the video, that it's the language that determines the thought process. The video provided numerous examples and you haven't debunked any of them or provided any evidence of your own Link to a study. Say something that proves your point. I don't care, just ANYTHING more than 3 word answers
@@armandaneshjoo So that I understand properly, you're asserting that all of this happened tens of thousands of years ago, right? Because people from Mexico speak Spanish but originally they didn't - they were "converted" by Spanish explorers from Spain. So the geography of Spain would have caused them to speak Spanish, which would have then spread to all of Spain and then to Mexico and South America, but it ORIGINATED because of the geography of Spain? Or am I not really following
5:11 Definitely. English is for engineering, German for philosophy, French for literature, Italian for opera/ theatre, Spanish for natural sciences, Latin for law, Middle Egyptian for spirituality, and Ancient Greek…to make students cry 😄
I am an indian who speak Malayalam,hindi and english ..and this magic behind languages have so long fascinated me . Malayalam my mother tongue feels so warm and vulnerable but English though it provides a lot better choice of words just not feels so right when talking my heart out .
Totally right! ❤ I am friendlier in Esperanto, more intellectual in Spanish, calmer in English, more simplistic in Toki Pona, more impatient in Italian and more attentive in sign language. 😁
Interesting; in different ways; You feel more intellectual in Spaninsh a post before yours said more nervous, and the video called it more neurotic. Where do these individual differences come from? Perceptions of cultures, and the individuals dominant culture in place of origin, roots/ancestry; born and raised aka cultivated? It is an interesting list of languages you have under your belt. It seems to make sense to be more attentive in sign language - you have to pay attention with your eyes to the details of the signs, and they can follow up fast like with spelling things. Esparanto - might have heard this word once or twice, but: Que? What? Thank God/Dog for the internet. Esperanto is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it is intended to be a universal second language for international communication, or "the international language" (la Lingvo Internacia). Since I am Dutch: Esperanto is een kunstmatig gecreëerde internationale taal. De taal is ontworpen door Lejzer Zamenhof, een Joodse oogarts afkomstig uit het Poolse gedeelte van het Keizerrijk Rusland. It is interesting to see how the descriptions are similar but different in ways, and thus the information this gives. These are the first two lines in the description. Translation of the Dutch: Esperanto is an artificial created international language. The language is designed by Lejzer Zamenhof, a Jewish ophthalmologist originating from the Polish part of the Russian Empire. Also with Toki Pona which is described as simplistic language; I had to look it up and for me it is things like this that make differences. How different languages describe things. First lines: English: a philosophical artistic constructed language known for its small vocabulary, simplicity, and ease of acquisition. Dutch: een kunsttaal, die werd vervaardigd door de Canadese taalkundige Sonja Lang en in de zomer van 2001 op het internet werd gepubliceerd. [Translated: An artificial/constructed language, that got constructed by a Canadian linguist (Sonja Lang) and in the summer of 2001 got published on the internet.] Artificial = kunstmatig like kunsttaal (kunst-taal) A constructed language may also be referred to as an artificial, planned or invented language, or (in some cases) a fictional language. I would guess Spanish is your native language, am I right? This is by deducting the informational inputs given by your statements. Sounds between Spanish and Italian in differences; Español is more "mellow" vs Italian which is more rápido. But for me they both also are very similar in ways. English is the dominant language on the internet and social media; so I'll biasly put this as not your native/first language.
Thank you for this very clear and helpful explanation. As a therapist my goal is to facilitate a change of mind through language: the way we talk about our selves, the world and others. Especially with trauma its about the change from victim to survivor mentality. So for me therapy is learning an old language new. As Lacan puts it: at first it's the language aquiring us, only through conscious use later the other way round is possible.
This is so interesting… I speak Finnish, English and Tagalog, and I have definitely realized that my personality or traits kind of change. Like in Finnish, I might be more brutal, straight forward, and honest, but when I speak English I’m far more polite and sociable. In Tagalog I start to really pay attention to who I am talking to and using the correct amount of respect when speaking to an elder. Sometimes these traits seep into the way I talk in the language that it’s not as common in. Like in Finland, an elderly person might be extremely taken aback when I speak extra politely or with the utmost respect.
Its harder when the languages are from different language trees , I am learning my 3rd language now, my first is semitic, second is indo-european and now a turkic language, I turn into different personality with each of them.
The Spanish phrase 'el jarrón se rompió' can be somewhat misleading. This construction is deliberately employed to emphasize the event itself rather than the agent responsible. However, the availability of this linguistic structure in Spanish does not mean it is universally applied in all contexts. More often, Spanish sentences are structured to distinctly identify the subject who is performing an action.
As a Russian-English speaker, I do feel not only my tone change but also my persona! Whenever I speak in Russian (my first language), I act more agro-chaotic, sassy, and playfully harsh. Yet avoid swearing in it as much as possible due to the environment I was raised in putting great meaning into swearing and tabooing it. Whenever I speak in English (my second language), I’m just as vibrant but in a more innocent sense, I use kinder language, and don’t have to play up/force on myself as much positivity. I often throw swears around in English, it’s not to offend anyone but to show that I’m not being serious. I told this to many people, but I just sense that English swearing is more like child’s play compared to Russian swearing, which can sometimes make me flinch. So in conclusion, if I’m chatting to you in English, know that I’m being less performative with you… and if a swear does slip out it’s not a big deal! If I’m chatting with you in Russian on the other hand… I am going into some form of character. And if I do use vulgar language, that means that’s something real messed up is going on or you messed up really bad.
I speak English and Chinese, I often find that some concepts can be only expressed in one of the 2 languages, and sometimes one language's words can express better than another. And some words I can't find good translations, and can only be expressed in original language.
I'm currently speaking 3 languages including native one ofcourse In my native Indonesian language, i feel like i should behave my mouth a bit more towards people In English language, i feel like i need to speak more mannerly and advance grammar And in Japanese language, i feel like i feel so calm and patient cuz there's so much rules baked into the language
In 21st century we know Linguistic relativism has minimal influence on our ideologies. I don't think my ideology will change if I learn Korean for example. Rather languages are shaped by how we think. If I read a literature(like a book) in a new language it might change my thoughts, not the language itself.
Wow. I didn't notice in myself that I tend to be more agreeable when speaking english lol. Now I see that I speak too frank when I speak my own language
I speak 9 languages, although I am fluent in four, due to the lack of partners to speak the others. When I speak English, I am more practical and tend to see things more pragmatically. When speaking German, my tendency is to see things more rationally and to have controlled reactions. Spanish makes me think rapidly, almost too fast. French relaxes me, I become more romantic and feel more alive "avec le joie de vivre". Portuguese is my mother tongue, so the emotions come out easier in this language. Greek and Italian are related to the Portuguese language. Russian and Japanese are the others but as I said I don't speak those languages so oft as the others, therefore there are no significant changes.
I am pentalingual and fluent in three of them. Like most who wrote their comments here, I feel and think differently in when talking in different languages; but I also feel the "linguistic personalities" spilling over into each other: the laid-back, pragmatic nature of Brazilian Portuguese into the English-spealing persona, the underhanded sarkasm of English into German and the German drive for pedantic precision into the other two. I do not, by the way, have a constant internal monologue and the occasional one I have is usually in the last language I uaed in conversation, until it peters out.
Born with Dutch words that need a dozen English words to explain like gezellig = cozy = hospitable - amicable - literal meaning - ge-zellig (a mingling of souls) - and then the Spanish esperar = hope=wait-expect I feel enriched by these concept - the most powerful for me is I love you = an active verb whereas Ik hou van jou - translates directly as I keep of you.
That's what I've been thinking the whole time! As a Korean, when I speak my mother tongue (Korean), I tend to focus more on the emotion and the action being taken rather than who did the action and which or who is taking it, since pronouns and subjects & objects aren't required grammatically. This is probably why when you join in the middle of a conversation of Korean speakers, you wouldn't really get what's they are talking about. Yet when I switch to english I suddenly find myself being much more conscious on the object and the subject. These amazing features making you look at the world differently are what keeps motivating me to learn new languages.
In spanish we would simply say "Juanito rompió el jarrón". Both english and spanish can imply guilt on people or in the environment. And trust me, spanish speaking cultures have a "wasnt me the one who messed up" culture, so we reaaally care about guilt
1:36 English has FOUR: 1. Past simple tense describes an action that started and ended at some time in the past. "He ate pizza on Tuesday." 2. Past continuous tense describes an action that started in the past and continued into the present. "He was eating pizza when the doorbell started to ring." 3. Past perfect tense describes something that started and ended in the past prior to another point in the past. "By supper last Tuesday he had already eaten pizza for breakfast and lunch." 4. Past perfect continuous tense describes an action that was going on in the past up until another action in the past. "By six p.m. last Tuesday he had been eating for five hours." English can do this for future tenses as well.
In English I’m more cheerful at school and more calm at home. In Italian I’m more cheery. In Spanish I’m very serious but not in a mean way. In French I’m pretty calm. In Japanese and Russian I don’t really know because islets too soon to tell as of right now.
As a multilingual who kept a diary for long years, I can agree that languages affect you. Or rather that, depending on my emotional state, some languages seemed to fit it better than others. I switched between the languages I used (Luxembourgisch, German, English and French). Or even formulate sentences that I was aware were grammatically wrong. Like "they stare me" instead of "they stare AT me". For context: I was very self-aware, anxious and got bullied a lot back then. Leaving the preposition out made it feel more direct, more intense and thus illustrating my feelings better. Behaviours though, I'm not sure. I don't think that I'd have observed them to change my behaviour. Languages are a definitely fascinating topic.
I speak five languages, and can't say that I'm different when I use either. I use them in different contexts, and the context influences what "mask" I wear, but if I'm made to switch language within the same context, my behaviour doesn't change. As for different ideas, knowing different languages certainly opens you do the notion that the same thing can be viewed in different ways. For example, Russian and Hebrew, two languages I spoke by age 4, both assign gender to objects. But the same object might be assigned one gender in one langage, and a different gender in another. It could have played a part in how I perceive gender. But then, I would have also been affected by being exposed to different cultures, that perceive gender differently. It's hard to separate the influence of language from culture.
I speak English and Spanish, the issue of 'gender' has nothing to do with the "sexual" identity of an object. In on area of South America a computer is 'feminine' in another it's masculine and there are plenty of other contradictions.
I speak at least four languages. Although Dutch sign language is my native language (I am deaf), I grew up bilingual: Dutch and Dutch Sign Language. In addition, I am sufficiently proficient in English and German. I learned these subjects at my secondary school. I encounter English every day, German less so. In addition, I have an acquaintance with a handful of words from French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Flemish Sign Language and American Sign Language itself. I personally find language diversity so fascinating, that is why I want to learn and understand this language.
I'm fluent in Swedish (my native language), Russian and English and I feel normal while speaking in them most of the time. There can be moments for me when I'm feeling nervous or anxious while speaking in Russian in a public setting, particularly in govermental departments, although there's a wide belief that Russian sounds like dogs barking or Russians being cold or intimidating (it's pretty true if you're dealing with cops on duty). I can also THINK in these three languages, it's mainly like I'm translating an ongoing active conversation that's in one language to an another language in my mind and sometimes I think over the current situation based on all this. Here's an example: Let's say that I'm having a conversation with someone in Swedish, the same conversation will be translated to either Russian or English in my mind depending on what mood I am in. Then I think over the next course of actions for my part in those languages or even in Swedish. If I'm having a conversation in Russian, that conversation is more often translated to Swedish than English, although that can also happen. There were times when my grandma (a native Russian woman with Caucasian heritage and upbringing, who had lived in Sweden for now almost 30 years) pointed out that I act like a typical Swede. Speaking of Swedes and Russians, my grandma once told me that she liked the general attitude in Swedish guys more than the general attitude of Russian guys, because the Swedish guys are calm and sensere while Russian guys are very brute and cocky in her experience. She also told me that there was an another Russian woman, who once complained to her that she couldn't understand what the Swedes are meowing about. Yes, you've read it right, "meowing", like the Swedish speech is so gentle and continuous compared to the Russian snappy speech that the lady thought that Swedes were "meowing" rather than talking.
Wow! Sangat bermanfaat sekali. Dengan informasi yang bermanfaat ini, saya makin termotivasi untuk mempelajari bahasa daerah asal saya. Terimakasih semoga Hatalla( Tuhan ) memberkati anda. Tara( puji ) untuk anda
Ukrainian/russian native, using the former to show some trust, the latter for arguing. On daily basis English for detailed explanations with people I’m ok with, German for short ones with ones I don’t really care about. French is for fun. Serbo-Croatian for vocal fighting
I apologize beforehand to being that person, but as a linguist myself, I need to point out a few inaccuracies, or yet better Anglo-centrisms in the examples provided, actually underlining the core argument that language does shape perception, as the creator of this video is very likely a monolingual English speaker and sees the world of langauges uniquely from that point of reference. Here goes: Speakers of languages that have grammatical gender e.g. the majority of Romance languages and South-Germanic languages do not see inanimate objects as inherently female, male or neuter, as the grammatical genders reflected in the articles (der, die, das as an example) are grammatical expletives for inanimate objects, and in almost all cases follow morpho-phonological, rather than semantic rules e.g. das Mädchen is a neuter grammatical gender, because it is a grammatical diminutive instead of die Mädchen (note: there is a lexical ambiguity as the plural form of Mädchen, remains the same, while the article changes to female, as all pluralized nouns in German take the female article, regardless of their gender marking in the singular). Further, several languages display a remote, or historical tense marking, this has arguably nothing to do how people perceive time, but, it shows in complex clauses, for example reported speech, where tense of the original speaker and current speaker is pertinent information - did the reported action happen in the recent or remote past? There have been recent arguments in the literature that true linguistic relativity shows in color, kinship and direction terms. Lastly, direction of ennumerating things in a row: this correlates with the writing system of each language, the Arabic script is written right to left, whereas languages that use the Latin or Cyrillic script are written from left to right, therefore, speakers/writers of such scripts will translate this to how they point when counting things.
I speak in 9 languages, English being the second one. I also happen to be a linguist. The Sappir-Whorf hypothesis is bonkers, it is only a reinforcement of prejudice. It is exactly the opposite of what you are saying: the culture is the one that molds the language, not the other way around. Punitivism is very prevalent on the anglosphere, and that's why you have harsher punishments and are way more judgemental; that could be reflected in the language used, but not the other way around. The example you gave on the Spanish "el jarrón se rompió" is simply not true; it is a mode of language: you could as easily say "rompiste el jarrón" or "Juancito rompió el jarrón", and it is motivated by speaker intention. This also changes a lot by each culture, and many languages (as English, Spanish, French and Portuguese) are multicultural, mainly because they were imperial languages. So, a Mexican has a different culture than an Argentinian, and it is reflected in the modes and the politics, with both sharing the same language. As a side note, Spanish is a very active language in most of its dialects. The passive voice is simply not used ("la pizza fue hecha por mí" sounds as awful as "se hizo la pizza"; we mostly say "Hice la pizza"). When I learned English as a teenager, I suddenly realized that the passive voice was a thing. The use of "se" is mostly impersonal, not passive: it focuses on the object instead of the subject, because of a conscious intent; depending on context, saying "el jarrón se rompió" is seen as sneaky. The Puritan influence on USA is to blame for the punitivism in the anglosphere, as the north-americans became the center of English-speaking world, and it is widely selective in WHAT you punish (EG: in Latin America, lobbying is a crime, but it is legal in the USA; that shapes the perception of corruption among Spanish speakers). You also seem to be way harsher on POC than in WASPS. That is also a languague shaping the culture? A case in study: grammatical gender. No one, absolutely no one sees an object as male or female; grammatical gender is just a language feature that governs sintaxis: "mesa" is feminine, but by no means a "mesa" is seen as a woman. And I could refer to myself in feminine form: "Soy una persona", being a perfectly cis heterosexual male. If the SW hypothesis was true, gender-neutral languages would spawn more sexually egalitarian societies, and this is not the case by any means. Chinese, for example, is such a gender-neutral language, and the gender roles in society are very much alive, way more alive than in, EG, Germany. And Romanians, which have three grammatical genders, would accept trans people and non-binaries much more easily than an Argentinian, and that is simply not the case. As for the personality traits changing on changing languages, it is also a culture thing: you feel more familiar with one language, and that shapes most of your personality. The instances and the focus in which you talk in other language shape your personality way more than the grammar itself. If you learned Spanish because you live in southern USA, you'll be way more nervous talking in it, because of social stigma, amount of migration, perception, etc. If you learn German because you have to study there, you'll adapt your mind to the context, and see German as a scientific language, instead of a Poetry one.
(A point in case, when I speak in English, I am way more aggressive and rude than when I'm speaking in Spanish, because I was forced to learn imperialist on the school, and I've resented it)
Thanks for this video! I have always been sceptical of the extent of this theory (!) because it seems so intuitive that it is very easy to jump from „a language does not have words for left and right, therefore the speaker perceives the world differently“ to „reeeeeh, internalized misogyny, reeeeh!“. So, thanks for leaving that identity politics crap out of it ❤ Also, I think I remember the different personality traits having to do with the circumstances of learning a language. For instance, I was a very shy child but in my teens when I learned English my inner extrovert took over and to this day I enjoy banter and goofing around in English much easier and more entertaining because there were different dominant traits at work during the learning process. Something like that. How that relates to anyone growing up multilingual would be another question though…maybe the parents’ personality does play more of a role shaping your language-specific self? 🤔 Also, how does the culture „behind“ a language come into play? That Japanese works completely differently on a linguistic level than Arabic or Swedish is one thing but I‘d expect my „Arab self“ to not be the quiet, polite type I would rather expect that from Japanese. Maybe my personal bias, studies on that topic would be intriguing 😅
An interesting perspective switch would be for the object vs. person orientation of blame in Spanish vs. English. The flip being English speakers would likely place more blame on the person and ignore the circumstances or environment. Both ways would have pros and cons.
From what I've read here and there, many linguists disagree with the idea of language (or language choice) affecting thought patterns or personality. But I've always felt the opposite -- agreeing with the points in this video. I speak English as "native" language, and French, Spanish, German, and a small amount of Swedish, along with a hit-or-miss passive recognition of Latin. My limited experience with these languages reflects the video's assertions closely.
That’s interesting because I do feel as an different person when I use French Sign Langage. (I am deaf but I learned to talk with hearing aids) I always think when I talk to someone in French that he would be shocked to see me when I am interacting with others in sign langage. It doesn’t happen a lot cuz those a two different world who a kept apart for various reasons but yeah
As a Nigerian, understanding Nigerian Pidgin English makes you interpret everything with a very different manner and logic than the normal English language.❤
There is something that should also be mentioned and that would be the ugly cousin of linguistic relativism and that would be linguistic determinism. Linguistic determinism, which is a discredited theory, would claim that the perception of individuals was limited by their language so any language and its structures would limit and determine human knowledge or thought, as well as thought processes such as categorization, memory, and perception. This means there were some languages that were "Superior" to other "inferior" languages when it comes to understanding the world and would explain why something like the scientific theory was born in Europe and not in any other part of the world. So as you can already tell, it is a very dangerous theory that was born in a time where people were trying to explain why some nations/cultures were superior to others. However it has been disproven and discredited so many times it is no longer mentioned and sometimes vagely refered. A good example of how to disprove it is how there are unique words to describe certain feelings/emotions/situatons that don't exist in another languages for example the portuguese "Saudade", the German "Schadenfreude" or the Spanish "Madrugar" however if a dictionary is taken that describes that word in say english it would be: Saudade - is an emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for a beloved yet absent something or someone. Schadenfreude - pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune. Madrugar - to wake up and get out of bed early in the morning. All 3 words unique to each language yet if an english speaker reads these meaning they can understand those feelings/situations or even have experienced said feelings/situations and just didn't have a word for it but there is no limitation to experiencing those feelings just because there's not a word for them in english.
Your example @2:00 isn't an example of language's effect on memory, it's more of a personality/intent indicator on the part of the speaker. English-speakers have the option to use active or passive language, but it's a clever way to couch lies/half-truths or shift responsibility to employ passive speech. And where would passive-aggression be without it?
being exposed to three languages since childhood makes me wonder who am i, but it turns out it makes my day-to-day opinion vary and it feels beautiful to see the world through many lenses
I think it is a bit more nuanced and some other aspects might also play along. Like first language vs second, third and so on. Also the language tree and the connections, and dialects. The ages by which the language is acquired. Dominance of the languages, etc. Like with the English you are capable of saying; The vase broke. It is the mentality of the culture that doesn't let you use the language in that way! It demands different. Like using neurotic instead of passionate to describe the Spanish. For me the differences in how you see things is with words like history for example: geschiedenis, geschichte, histoire, historia, this has to to with the relations of the languages and the dominant culture connected to that language. If we look at how the words are build up and contextualize the meaning out of them in that way. French, Spanish - aka latin languages and their connections and in ways; The Empire mindset. English is a mix of Germanic and Latin based (French) and just a small part is Celtic the native language before the Roman invasions, Brittonic, etc. German history also can mean; story (geschichte), as Dutch is translated as; what happend - so a retelling of what happened. And the English sounds like his-story. Which also is the feelings the words conjure in ways when we use them. Is it a story, his story, or a retelling of what has happened according to sources???
I play sports almost exclusively in Spanish (this works okay for me because tennis is the most common sport I play so I'll call score in English so the other person knows but when I talk to myself - which is a lot a lot - it'll be almost entirely in Spanish). I've noticed I get less emotional and play better, cause I really don't play well when I'm angry Partly this is of course because English is my native language - like the video said I think another part of it is also that the reason I started doing this is because I would talk to my teammate in Spanish between points and he would help me calm down. Like that's mainly what I talked to him for - he was encouraging and supportive and reminded me not to play angry. So I think it just became habit
I am fluent in Italian and German. Good luck I am Austrian and therefore musical by national duty. In fact, I can speak 4 languages and bad Spanish. Yes, I feel a different choice of alternatives how to say what I mean depending on the language I am using. But: I learned Italian from my girlfriend who in return learned German and we both already spoke English and French resulting in a very eclectic mix of words in our private life. It gave us a headache every now and then.
Well of coordinates systems, backthen when people were looking in the sky because of practical reasons (remember, no clocks, no compass, but the sun is every morning in the east and in the west in the evening) these coordinates were of common understandung. As far as I know greeks have for quite a while (always) words right and left. The Spanish can say el niño rompió la vasa as well as the English could say the vase got broken. But of course the culture in general which contains not only languages, but also time and past experiences, traditions etc affects the way one thinks. And of course except the group's culture there are also personal experience, abilities, etc.
Not really u can say 'salir'= go out 'ir afuera' =go outside/out Ect the same way an English speaker can say it in different ways such as 'get some fresh air' 🤷🏻♀️
@@Hieiououhiaiai let’s take for example the English language with its Greek and Latin history a product of civilizations that mostly prioritized logic and critical thinking. Because it is based mostly on Greek and Latin words the thought processes created when speaking and writing it are enclosed by and structured by the nature of the words. The thinking of an English speaker versus a Chinese speaking thinker is different because of the language used and so is their respective listeners.
@@magouliana32 Different in what? Thats too broad. It's just a story and reasoning that sound nice but I doubt there is much truth in it. Give me a specific examples in where they differ.
@@Hieiououhiaiai i am trying to make it simple for you to understand. I found deeper linguistic example of English vs Chinese language differences it gives you an idea of what I am trying to explain to you. There are many quite unusual characteristics of the Chinese language compared to most which have historically been spoken around the world. Most of these are shared with surrounding languages in various directions: isolating word structure based around single-syllable words in which word order is used to designate meaning a complex tone system whereby tonality differentiates otherwise similar words a logographic writing system in which different words can have the same sound and tone, being distinguished in speech by context (in Mandarin) a phonology with “aspirated” and “unaspirated” rather than voiced and voiceless plosives (in Mandarin) “retroflex” and “alveopalatal” fricatives and affricate phonemes use of serial verbs to indicate relationships often indicated by adpositions in European languages frequent use of complex phrases to indicate relationships “non-tensed” verbal system adjectives and locational predicates are analogous to verbs and do not require copulas as in most European languages lack of distinctions between genitives, adjectives and relative clauses interrogative phrases are placed as they would be in an ordinary declarative sentence, not initially as in most European languages unique XVO order where X is an oblique phrase, as VO and RelN combined order (see WALS chapters 84 and 96)
My native is Russian , my second is English. I have different characters in these languages. I am more friendly, focused and brave in English and more emotional in Russian.
Whenever i switch from english to hindi or vice versa I always feel like my personality slightly changes. I feel more emotional in hindi and more logical in english. I thought it was weird 😅
I'm free-will in Indonesian as native-language I'm serious and boasted about something in English I'm more respectful and careful about the other feelings in Japanese
I speak french and english, i speak french daily but what i notice is sometimes when i have a strong emotions...my brain will starts thinking in english 😂
When I speak Tuvian(native) I behave as little girl. I become more emotional, infantile and impulsive. When I speak Russian I behave more serious. I bottle up my emotions, feel more responsibility and try control everything. When I speak English I feel me like a parrot who talks, talks, talks and talks. I feel like people around are tired of my broken English with Russian accent and grammar but temptation to move air is stronger than shame. :_) Ahahahah. P.s. I was embarrassed when I was learning Russian cuz it has genders for objects. I always feel displeasure when I have to outline gender of smth(I don't have problems with that but I just don't like it). I like English because I don't have to pay attention to genders. Finally, I understood that my native language doesn't have genders too. Ahahah.
I always think my thoughts in English even though It's my second language . I guess It's bcz i always used to watch English tv movies, cartoons snd animes, so it got stuck in my head
as someone who speaks portuguese (spanish's twin brother), english, dutch, and german... most of the things said about spanish in this video is BS. I never seen a more accusatory person then a spanish/portuguese speaking mother with a pair of flip flops in her hand.
what language is spoken in bangladesh? All travel vlogs i've seen of people going there they were so weird. Like some ppl would just stand in front of the youtuber looking at them without saying anything
So do bilingual speakers (Itallian-German) from Northern Italian province of Bolzano/South Tyrol have two personalities? Please! And no, absolutely Italians don't see objects as male or female: the grammatical gender has nothing to do with the sexual gender: a car - auto(mobile) or colloquially macchina - is 'female' under a grammatical point of view but Italian speakers are not so perverted as to see female sex organs in it (ask French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian speakers for confirmation whose languages work in the same way). Another incorrect example is the one about Spanish: if a kid breaks a vase accidentally while playing football in a room like shown in the picture, Spanish speakers say the same as in English (el niño rompió el jarrón, underlining who did it, stressing who is responsible, that's to say "el niño"). On the contrary, if someone breaks a glass accidentally while taking it out the washing machine, then they say "El vaso se rompió": in this case a guilt constraint is not established. Is it linguistics, seriously? Its sounds like prejudices and stereotypes. And it's serious that these stereotypes are being spread by an educational channel in a video that talks about openning people's mind.
The nuances of how languages work never cease to fascinate me.
nuances now its a tongue twister i still have to check i say it correctly
There's so many people who say that when you're learning a new language it's better not to focus on the rules and grammar at first
And I do see their point behind that but that's most of the reason I learn new languages - I think all the different rules are really interesting
Hey, with the language I speak, I can even see infinite space and temporal dimensions! I can see the backrooms with my eyes, I can see the heat death of the universe, everything!
In Portuguese there are two "be" verbs: "ser" and "estar." "Ser" is for permanent traits and generalizations. While "estar" is for temporary states, emotions, and locations. To be honest, it surprised me when I started learning English that it wasn't the same way
Don't forget words that can't be translated like "Saudade"
@@AmantducafeI thought that translated to “Melancholy” or something like that
@@fivestarplaying3553 does not capture the whole meaning
I agree…even how we state our age in English vs. Portuguese/spanish saying “i have X years”
Or even gendered objects…
@@fivestarplaying3553nah, saudade is a very complex feeling. Relates to nostalgia, fond memories.
Longing is close but not enough.
I speak 5 languages and feel a bit different when I speak each of them!
I'm more confident in italian, more depressed in french, more nervous in spanish, more arrogant in greek and more serious in english xD
It becomes even more funny when speaking even more languages
👽🛸🌈🌎🌍🌏✌️🧠💕
@@_TravelWithLoveJames Corden language
And what's your mother tongue ? I pesonally am more serious in french and prefer making jokes in english
@@gudetamaminiso513 ask her ;)) what her tong is … or don’t … 🙄
@@_TravelWithLove ?
Im bilingual french/english and i do have different personnalities based on the language.
However it's not related to the language itself, the personnalities varies based on how i learned the language.
In french i am very much like my parents, but in english i am way more open and less emotional because i mostly learned it from the internet.
i speak 5 languages Hindi, Marathi, Gujurati, English and French, there is a difference in mood while speaking any of them...but I like speaking English and Gujarati because that's what i am more comfortable compared to other languages
So I am Dutch, but also was exposed to English at a young age (in religious context) and German, Germany was just 15 minute drive with the car. And historically and linguistically Dutch is a Germanic language. These three feel all natural to me, and it is hard to say which is my "First", in order. German feels most strange because I can get lost with certain words, een Kreis/Kreisverkehr vs roundabout and rotonde. German will have me thinking the most. Also with the grammar. I can read it fine, writing it .... not that used to that anymore.
But then also with the languages that have similarities; how do you write them? Where spelling mishaps might take place.
Even if Dutch is my first and native language for a period in my life I thought in English, and I at times could express my internal thoughts and feelings better in English. But that was the more dominant social group in the context of my life at that time.
I speak 4 languages and I was actually perplexed when i realised that my behavior and the way i talk changes automatically when i switch to another language, and I thought "No, That might be an accident!"... But I found out that this was actually true from this video! Thanks a lot to the Sprouts team forcovering this topic. Amazing job, guys!
Wow! Thanks for sharing this :)
This channel should be mandatory viewing in public schools around 5th grade.
🥺💕
@@armandaneshjoo I'm not saying that you're wrong, because I DON'T have the evidence to back that up. But to understand better, I AM gonna find the places where I don't understand how your point make sense
If so much evidence denies language shaping thought, what explains people's different personalities in various languages? Or English getting more convictions
If so much evidence indicates thought shaping language, that doesn't make sense. Not all English speakers think the same way. Not all English speakers think differently from all Spanish speakers. For this to be true, there would have to be one thought process for every language and in fact there's closer to idk 4 billion?
@@armandaneshjoo I don't know what the real answer is but I can promise it's NOT geography
There's COUNTLESS people who say they have a slightly different personality depending on which language they're currently speaking. But their location didn't change - only their personality
Dude most English speakers do NOT think the same way. I guess, to be clear, they do, but that's a human thing, not a English thing. You've provided zero evidence and my only logical conclusion to come to is that you have no idea what you're talking about
@@armandaneshjoo Dude I literally told you I don't HAVE any evidence to provide that's why I'm questioning you
It makes zero sense for me to speak English because I think like an English speaker. I just HAPPEN to have been born with the correct mindset to speak English. It makes DRASTICALLY more sense for me to think like an English speaker because everyone around me has done that since I was born and that's just how I learned
I clearly didn't explain this very well in my last comment - I'm not denying that people think differently depending on their language. I'm denying that it's the different thought processes that determine the language, and claiming, like the video, that it's the language that determines the thought process. The video provided numerous examples and you haven't debunked any of them or provided any evidence of your own
Link to a study. Say something that proves your point. I don't care, just ANYTHING more than 3 word answers
@@armandaneshjoo So that I understand properly, you're asserting that all of this happened tens of thousands of years ago, right? Because people from Mexico speak Spanish but originally they didn't - they were "converted" by Spanish explorers from Spain. So the geography of Spain would have caused them to speak Spanish, which would have then spread to all of Spain and then to Mexico and South America, but it ORIGINATED because of the geography of Spain? Or am I not really following
5:11 Definitely. English is for engineering, German for philosophy, French for literature, Italian for opera/ theatre, Spanish for natural sciences, Latin for law, Middle Egyptian for spirituality, and Ancient Greek…to make students cry 😄
I am an indian who speak Malayalam,hindi and english ..and this magic behind languages have so long fascinated me . Malayalam my mother tongue feels so warm and vulnerable but English though it provides a lot better choice of words just not feels so right when talking my heart out .
Totally right! ❤
I am friendlier in Esperanto, more intellectual in Spanish, calmer in English, more simplistic in Toki Pona, more impatient in Italian and more attentive in sign language. 😁
Interesting; in different ways; You feel more intellectual in Spaninsh a post before yours said more nervous, and the video called it more neurotic. Where do these individual differences come from? Perceptions of cultures, and the individuals dominant culture in place of origin, roots/ancestry; born and raised aka cultivated?
It is an interesting list of languages you have under your belt.
It seems to make sense to be more attentive in sign language - you have to pay attention with your eyes to the details of the signs, and they can follow up fast like with spelling things.
Esparanto - might have heard this word once or twice, but: Que? What? Thank God/Dog for the internet.
Esperanto is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it is intended to be a universal second language for international communication, or "the international language" (la Lingvo Internacia).
Since I am Dutch: Esperanto is een kunstmatig gecreëerde internationale taal. De taal is ontworpen door Lejzer Zamenhof, een Joodse oogarts afkomstig uit het Poolse gedeelte van het Keizerrijk Rusland.
It is interesting to see how the descriptions are similar but different in ways, and thus the information this gives. These are the first two lines in the description.
Translation of the Dutch: Esperanto is an artificial created international language. The language is designed by Lejzer Zamenhof, a Jewish ophthalmologist originating from the Polish part of the Russian Empire.
Also with Toki Pona which is described as simplistic language; I had to look it up and for me it is things like this that make differences. How different languages describe things. First lines:
English: a philosophical artistic constructed language known for its small vocabulary, simplicity, and ease of acquisition.
Dutch: een kunsttaal, die werd vervaardigd door de Canadese taalkundige Sonja Lang en in de zomer van 2001 op het internet werd gepubliceerd.
[Translated: An artificial/constructed language, that got constructed by a Canadian linguist (Sonja Lang) and in the summer of 2001 got published on the internet.]
Artificial = kunstmatig like kunsttaal (kunst-taal)
A constructed language may also be referred to as an artificial, planned or invented language, or (in some cases) a fictional language.
I would guess Spanish is your native language, am I right?
This is by deducting the informational inputs given by your statements.
Sounds between Spanish and Italian in differences; Español is more "mellow" vs Italian which is more rápido. But for me they both also are very similar in ways.
English is the dominant language on the internet and social media; so I'll biasly put this as not your native/first language.
Thank you for this very clear and helpful explanation. As a therapist my goal is to facilitate a change of mind through language: the way we talk about our selves, the world and others. Especially with trauma its about the change from victim to survivor mentality. So for me therapy is learning an old language new. As Lacan puts it: at first it's the language aquiring us, only through conscious use later the other way round is possible.
This is so interesting… I speak Finnish, English and Tagalog, and I have definitely realized that my personality or traits kind of change. Like in Finnish, I might be more brutal, straight forward, and honest, but when I speak English I’m far more polite and sociable. In Tagalog I start to really pay attention to who I am talking to and using the correct amount of respect when speaking to an elder. Sometimes these traits seep into the way I talk in the language that it’s not as common in. Like in Finland, an elderly person might be extremely taken aback when I speak extra politely or with the utmost respect.
Its harder when the languages are from different language trees , I am learning my 3rd language now, my first is semitic, second is indo-european and now a turkic language, I turn into different personality with each of them.
I love the examples in the Thai language 😊
The Spanish phrase 'el jarrón se rompió' can be somewhat misleading. This construction is deliberately employed to emphasize the event itself rather than the agent responsible. However, the availability of this linguistic structure in Spanish does not mean it is universally applied in all contexts. More often, Spanish sentences are structured to distinctly identify the subject who is performing an action.
As a Russian-English speaker, I do feel not only my tone change but also my persona!
Whenever I speak in Russian (my first language), I act more agro-chaotic, sassy, and playfully harsh. Yet avoid swearing in it as much as possible due to the environment I was raised in putting great meaning into swearing and tabooing it.
Whenever I speak in English (my second language), I’m just as vibrant but in a more innocent sense, I use kinder language, and don’t have to play up/force on myself as much positivity. I often throw swears around in English, it’s not to offend anyone but to show that I’m not being serious.
I told this to many people, but I just sense that English swearing is more like child’s play compared to Russian swearing, which can sometimes make me flinch.
So in conclusion, if I’m chatting to you in English, know that I’m being less performative with you… and if a swear does slip out it’s not a big deal! If I’m chatting with you in Russian on the other hand… I am going into some form of character. And if I do use vulgar language, that means that’s something real messed up is going on or you messed up really bad.
I speak English and Chinese, I often find that some concepts can be only expressed in one of the 2 languages, and sometimes one language's words can express better than another. And some words I can't find good translations, and can only be expressed in original language.
I'm currently speaking 3 languages including native one ofcourse
In my native Indonesian language, i feel like i should behave my mouth a bit more towards people
In English language, i feel like i need to speak more mannerly and advance grammar
And in Japanese language, i feel like i feel so calm and patient cuz there's so much rules baked into the language
I read a sci-fi book over 50 years ago based on this. It is "The Languages of Pao" by Jack Vance.
In 21st century we know Linguistic relativism has minimal influence on our ideologies. I don't think my ideology will change if I learn Korean for example. Rather languages are shaped by how we think. If I read a literature(like a book) in a new language it might change my thoughts, not the language itself.
Wow. I didn't notice in myself that I tend to be more agreeable when speaking english lol. Now I see that I speak too frank when I speak my own language
I speak 9 languages, although I am fluent in four, due to the lack of partners to speak the others. When I speak English, I am more practical and tend to see things more pragmatically. When speaking German, my tendency is to see things more rationally and to have controlled reactions. Spanish makes me think rapidly, almost too fast. French relaxes me, I become more romantic and feel more alive "avec le joie de vivre". Portuguese is my mother tongue, so the emotions come out easier in this language. Greek and Italian are related to the Portuguese language. Russian and Japanese are the others but as I said I don't speak those languages so oft as the others, therefore there are no significant changes.
Wow! Thanks for sharing :)
Yes, absolutely. I experience it in switching between English and French. I prefer French. 🇫🇷
Thanks for sharing!
Jai Yen in Thai means “calm down” (usually used as an imperative form) or to describe someone with a calm personality.
I am pentalingual and fluent in three of them. Like most who wrote their comments here, I feel and think differently in when talking in different languages; but I also feel the "linguistic personalities" spilling over into each other: the laid-back, pragmatic nature of Brazilian Portuguese into the English-spealing persona, the underhanded sarkasm of English into German and the German drive for pedantic precision into the other two.
I do not, by the way, have a constant internal monologue and the occasional one I have is usually in the last language I uaed in conversation, until it peters out.
Born with Dutch words that need a dozen English words to explain like gezellig = cozy = hospitable - amicable - literal meaning - ge-zellig (a mingling of souls) - and then the Spanish esperar = hope=wait-expect I feel enriched by these concept - the most powerful for me is I love you = an active verb whereas Ik hou van jou - translates directly as I keep of you.
That's what I've been thinking the whole time! As a Korean, when I speak my mother tongue (Korean), I tend to focus more on the emotion and the action being taken rather than who did the action and which or who is taking it, since pronouns and subjects & objects aren't required grammatically. This is probably why when you join in the middle of a conversation of Korean speakers, you wouldn't really get what's they are talking about. Yet when I switch to english I suddenly find myself being much more conscious on the object and the subject. These amazing features making you look at the world differently are what keeps motivating me to learn new languages.
Interesting insight! Thank you for sharing :)
In spanish we would simply say "Juanito rompió el jarrón". Both english and spanish can imply guilt on people or in the environment. And trust me, spanish speaking cultures have a "wasnt me the one who messed up" culture, so we reaaally care about guilt
Yea I thought that was strange, you can say Èl lo rompiò in Spanish
1:36 English has FOUR:
1. Past simple tense describes an action that started and ended at some time in the past.
"He ate pizza on Tuesday."
2. Past continuous tense describes an action that started in the past and continued into the present.
"He was eating pizza when the doorbell started to ring."
3. Past perfect tense describes something that started and ended in the past prior to another point in the past.
"By supper last Tuesday he had already eaten pizza for breakfast and lunch."
4. Past perfect continuous tense describes an action that was going on in the past up until another action in the past.
"By six p.m. last Tuesday he had been eating for five hours."
English can do this for future tenses as well.
I can speak 4 languages and feel different in each one. I can shout in my mother tongue but not in English, which is a bit weird
Thanks for sharing! :)
Sameee. I speak 3 it's hard for me to shout in English for some reason my brain gets really confused it's so weird.i thought it was just me
In English I’m more cheerful at school and more calm at home. In Italian I’m more cheery. In Spanish I’m very serious but not in a mean way. In French I’m pretty calm. In Japanese and Russian I don’t really know because islets too soon to tell as of right now.
Really wonderful topic. Thank you❤❤❤
Look forward to hearing more from Sprouts
Quite an interesting video. I never thought about how language may shape behavior, or mental acuity.
Languages are beautiful and so are the feelings behind each of them.
As a multilingual who kept a diary for long years, I can agree that languages affect you. Or rather that, depending on my emotional state, some languages seemed to fit it better than others. I switched between the languages I used (Luxembourgisch, German, English and French).
Or even formulate sentences that I was aware were grammatically wrong. Like "they stare me" instead of "they stare AT me". For context: I was very self-aware, anxious and got bullied a lot back then. Leaving the preposition out made it feel more direct, more intense and thus illustrating my feelings better.
Behaviours though, I'm not sure. I don't think that I'd have observed them to change my behaviour.
Languages are a definitely fascinating topic.
I’m incredibly fascinated by the languages & their origin
I speak five languages, and can't say that I'm different when I use either. I use them in different contexts, and the context influences what "mask" I wear, but if I'm made to switch language within the same context, my behaviour doesn't change.
As for different ideas, knowing different languages certainly opens you do the notion that the same thing can be viewed in different ways. For example, Russian and Hebrew, two languages I spoke by age 4, both assign gender to objects. But the same object might be assigned one gender in one langage, and a different gender in another. It could have played a part in how I perceive gender. But then, I would have also been affected by being exposed to different cultures, that perceive gender differently. It's hard to separate the influence of language from culture.
I speak English and Spanish, the issue of 'gender' has nothing to do with the "sexual" identity of an object. In on area of South America a computer is 'feminine' in another it's masculine and there are plenty of other contradictions.
@@TheCompleteGuitarist Yeh, it's grammatical gender. Nobody thinks a table has a sexual identity.
the most relatable concept that I never thought I needed it.
I speak at least four languages. Although Dutch sign language is my native language (I am deaf), I grew up bilingual: Dutch and Dutch Sign Language. In addition, I am sufficiently proficient in English and German. I learned these subjects at my secondary school. I encounter English every day, German less so.
In addition, I have an acquaintance with a handful of words from French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Flemish Sign Language and American Sign Language itself. I personally find language diversity so fascinating, that is why I want to learn and understand this language.
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and others like it have been heavily discredited by the linguistics community.
I'm fluent in Swedish (my native language), Russian and English and I feel normal while speaking in them most of the time. There can be moments for me when I'm feeling nervous or anxious while speaking in Russian in a public setting, particularly in govermental departments, although there's a wide belief that Russian sounds like dogs barking or Russians being cold or intimidating (it's pretty true if you're dealing with cops on duty). I can also THINK in these three languages, it's mainly like I'm translating an ongoing active conversation that's in one language to an another language in my mind and sometimes I think over the current situation based on all this. Here's an example: Let's say that I'm having a conversation with someone in Swedish, the same conversation will be translated to either Russian or English in my mind depending on what mood I am in. Then I think over the next course of actions for my part in those languages or even in Swedish. If I'm having a conversation in Russian, that conversation is more often translated to Swedish than English, although that can also happen. There were times when my grandma (a native Russian woman with Caucasian heritage and upbringing, who had lived in Sweden for now almost 30 years) pointed out that I act like a typical Swede. Speaking of Swedes and Russians, my grandma once told me that she liked the general attitude in Swedish guys more than the general attitude of Russian guys, because the Swedish guys are calm and sensere while Russian guys are very brute and cocky in her experience. She also told me that there was an another Russian woman, who once complained to her that she couldn't understand what the Swedes are meowing about. Yes, you've read it right, "meowing", like the Swedish speech is so gentle and continuous compared to the Russian snappy speech that the lady thought that Swedes were "meowing" rather than talking.
Wow! Sangat bermanfaat sekali. Dengan informasi yang bermanfaat ini, saya makin termotivasi untuk mempelajari bahasa daerah asal saya. Terimakasih semoga Hatalla( Tuhan ) memberkati anda. Tara( puji ) untuk anda
Ukrainian/russian native, using the former to show some trust, the latter for arguing. On daily basis
English for detailed explanations with people I’m ok with, German for short ones with ones I don’t really care about. French is for fun. Serbo-Croatian for vocal fighting
Probably because, even we talk to ourselves inside our mind by the medium of language. Hence, it influences our thoughts accordingly as well.
I apologize beforehand to being that person, but as a linguist myself, I need to point out a few inaccuracies, or yet better Anglo-centrisms in the examples provided, actually underlining the core argument that language does shape perception, as the creator of this video is very likely a monolingual English speaker and sees the world of langauges uniquely from that point of reference. Here goes: Speakers of languages that have grammatical gender e.g. the majority of Romance languages and South-Germanic languages do not see inanimate objects as inherently female, male or neuter, as the grammatical genders reflected in the articles (der, die, das as an example) are grammatical expletives for inanimate objects, and in almost all cases follow morpho-phonological, rather than semantic rules e.g. das Mädchen is a neuter grammatical gender, because it is a grammatical diminutive instead of die Mädchen (note: there is a lexical ambiguity as the plural form of Mädchen, remains the same, while the article changes to female, as all pluralized nouns in German take the female article, regardless of their gender marking in the singular). Further, several languages display a remote, or historical tense marking, this has arguably nothing to do how people perceive time, but, it shows in complex clauses, for example reported speech, where tense of the original speaker and current speaker is pertinent information - did the reported action happen in the recent or remote past? There have been recent arguments in the literature that true linguistic relativity shows in color, kinship and direction terms. Lastly, direction of ennumerating things in a row: this correlates with the writing system of each language, the Arabic script is written right to left, whereas languages that use the Latin or Cyrillic script are written from left to right, therefore, speakers/writers of such scripts will translate this to how they point when counting things.
I speak in 9 languages, English being the second one. I also happen to be a linguist. The Sappir-Whorf hypothesis is bonkers, it is only a reinforcement of prejudice. It is exactly the opposite of what you are saying: the culture is the one that molds the language, not the other way around. Punitivism is very prevalent on the anglosphere, and that's why you have harsher punishments and are way more judgemental; that could be reflected in the language used, but not the other way around. The example you gave on the Spanish "el jarrón se rompió" is simply not true; it is a mode of language: you could as easily say "rompiste el jarrón" or "Juancito rompió el jarrón", and it is motivated by speaker intention. This also changes a lot by each culture, and many languages (as English, Spanish, French and Portuguese) are multicultural, mainly because they were imperial languages. So, a Mexican has a different culture than an Argentinian, and it is reflected in the modes and the politics, with both sharing the same language.
As a side note, Spanish is a very active language in most of its dialects. The passive voice is simply not used ("la pizza fue hecha por mí" sounds as awful as "se hizo la pizza"; we mostly say "Hice la pizza"). When I learned English as a teenager, I suddenly realized that the passive voice was a thing. The use of "se" is mostly impersonal, not passive: it focuses on the object instead of the subject, because of a conscious intent; depending on context, saying "el jarrón se rompió" is seen as sneaky. The Puritan influence on USA is to blame for the punitivism in the anglosphere, as the north-americans became the center of English-speaking world, and it is widely selective in WHAT you punish (EG: in Latin America, lobbying is a crime, but it is legal in the USA; that shapes the perception of corruption among Spanish speakers). You also seem to be way harsher on POC than in WASPS. That is also a languague shaping the culture?
A case in study: grammatical gender. No one, absolutely no one sees an object as male or female; grammatical gender is just a language feature that governs sintaxis: "mesa" is feminine, but by no means a "mesa" is seen as a woman. And I could refer to myself in feminine form: "Soy una persona", being a perfectly cis heterosexual male. If the SW hypothesis was true, gender-neutral languages would spawn more sexually egalitarian societies, and this is not the case by any means. Chinese, for example, is such a gender-neutral language, and the gender roles in society are very much alive, way more alive than in, EG, Germany. And Romanians, which have three grammatical genders, would accept trans people and non-binaries much more easily than an Argentinian, and that is simply not the case.
As for the personality traits changing on changing languages, it is also a culture thing: you feel more familiar with one language, and that shapes most of your personality. The instances and the focus in which you talk in other language shape your personality way more than the grammar itself. If you learned Spanish because you live in southern USA, you'll be way more nervous talking in it, because of social stigma, amount of migration, perception, etc. If you learn German because you have to study there, you'll adapt your mind to the context, and see German as a scientific language, instead of a Poetry one.
(A point in case, when I speak in English, I am way more aggressive and rude than when I'm speaking in Spanish, because I was forced to learn imperialist on the school, and I've resented it)
Thanks for this video! I have always been sceptical of the extent of this theory (!) because it seems so intuitive that it is very easy to jump from „a language does not have words for left and right, therefore the speaker perceives the world differently“ to „reeeeeh, internalized misogyny, reeeeh!“. So, thanks for leaving that identity politics crap out of it ❤
Also, I think I remember the different personality traits having to do with the circumstances of learning a language. For instance, I was a very shy child but in my teens when I learned English my inner extrovert took over and to this day I enjoy banter and goofing around in English much easier and more entertaining because there were different dominant traits at work during the learning process. Something like that. How that relates to anyone growing up multilingual would be another question though…maybe the parents’ personality does play more of a role shaping your language-specific self? 🤔
Also, how does the culture „behind“ a language come into play? That Japanese works completely differently on a linguistic level than Arabic or Swedish is one thing but I‘d expect my „Arab self“ to not be the quiet, polite type I would rather expect that from Japanese. Maybe my personal bias, studies on that topic would be intriguing 😅
I am way more polite in languages which have polite/formal form e.g. Hindi and Korean. Simply because the words exist.
Me too!
Saya orang jawa Indonesia. Dengan bahasa daerah saya yang sangat menjunjung tatakrama dan stratifikasi percakapan yergantung kepada siapa kita bica.
An interesting perspective switch would be for the object vs. person orientation of blame in Spanish vs. English.
The flip being English speakers would likely place more blame on the person and ignore the circumstances or environment.
Both ways would have pros and cons.
From what I've read here and there, many linguists disagree with the idea of language (or language choice) affecting thought patterns or personality. But I've always felt the opposite -- agreeing with the points in this video. I speak English as "native" language, and French, Spanish, German, and a small amount of Swedish, along with a hit-or-miss passive recognition of Latin. My limited experience with these languages reflects the video's assertions closely.
That’s interesting because I do feel as an different person when I use French Sign Langage. (I am deaf but I learned to talk with hearing aids)
I always think when I talk to someone in French that he would be shocked to see me when I am interacting with others in sign langage. It doesn’t happen a lot cuz those a two different world who a kept apart for various reasons but yeah
As a Nigerian, understanding Nigerian Pidgin English makes you interpret everything with a very different manner and logic than the normal English language.❤
My frienfs tell me i am more serious and arguementative when I speak English and more easy going and empathetic when speaking Flemish.
There is something that should also be mentioned and that would be the ugly cousin of linguistic relativism and that would be linguistic determinism.
Linguistic determinism, which is a discredited theory, would claim that the perception of individuals was limited by their language so any language and its structures would limit and determine human knowledge or thought, as well as thought processes such as categorization, memory, and perception. This means there were some languages that were "Superior" to other "inferior" languages when it comes to understanding the world and would explain why something like the scientific theory was born in Europe and not in any other part of the world.
So as you can already tell, it is a very dangerous theory that was born in a time where people were trying to explain why some nations/cultures were superior to others.
However it has been disproven and discredited so many times it is no longer mentioned and sometimes vagely refered. A good example of how to disprove it is how there are unique words to describe certain feelings/emotions/situatons that don't exist in another languages for example the portuguese "Saudade", the German "Schadenfreude" or the Spanish "Madrugar" however if a dictionary is taken that describes that word in say english it would be:
Saudade - is an emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for a beloved yet absent something or someone.
Schadenfreude - pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.
Madrugar - to wake up and get out of bed early in the morning.
All 3 words unique to each language yet if an english speaker reads these meaning they can understand those feelings/situations or even have experienced said feelings/situations and just didn't have a word for it but there is no limitation to experiencing those feelings just because there's not a word for them in english.
I speak both Spanish English
my medicine Cupid that's from Puerto Rico but I was born here in America I was born in Florida United
awesome video
Your example @2:00 isn't an example of language's effect on memory, it's more of a personality/intent indicator on the part of the speaker. English-speakers have the option to use active or passive language, but it's a clever way to couch lies/half-truths or shift responsibility to employ passive speech. And where would passive-aggression be without it?
being exposed to three languages since childhood makes me wonder who am i, but it turns out it makes my day-to-day opinion vary and it feels beautiful to see the world through many lenses
You guys are great
I fulently speak: Bosnian (97-100٪) fulently, English & and a tiny bit of Russian
I’m learning french for about 40 years now… Just for fun, to keep my mind running.
I think it is a bit more nuanced and some other aspects might also play along. Like first language vs second, third and so on. Also the language tree and the connections, and dialects. The ages by which the language is acquired. Dominance of the languages, etc. Like with the English you are capable of saying; The vase broke. It is the mentality of the culture that doesn't let you use the language in that way! It demands different. Like using neurotic instead of passionate to describe the Spanish.
For me the differences in how you see things is with words like history for example: geschiedenis, geschichte, histoire, historia, this has to to with the relations of the languages and the dominant culture connected to that language. If we look at how the words are build up and contextualize the meaning out of them in that way.
French, Spanish - aka latin languages and their connections and in ways; The Empire mindset.
English is a mix of Germanic and Latin based (French) and just a small part is Celtic the native language before the Roman invasions, Brittonic, etc.
German history also can mean; story (geschichte), as Dutch is translated as; what happend - so a retelling of what happened.
And the English sounds like his-story. Which also is the feelings the words conjure in ways when we use them.
Is it a story, his story, or a retelling of what has happened according to sources???
This is really interesting.
I play sports almost exclusively in Spanish (this works okay for me because tennis is the most common sport I play so I'll call score in English so the other person knows but when I talk to myself - which is a lot a lot - it'll be almost entirely in Spanish). I've noticed I get less emotional and play better, cause I really don't play well when I'm angry
Partly this is of course because English is my native language - like the video said
I think another part of it is also that the reason I started doing this is because I would talk to my teammate in Spanish between points and he would help me calm down. Like that's mainly what I talked to him for - he was encouraging and supportive and reminded me not to play angry. So I think it just became habit
Interesting. Thanks for sharing.
I am fluent in Italian and German. Good luck I am Austrian and therefore musical by national duty. In fact, I can speak 4 languages and bad Spanish. Yes, I feel a different choice of alternatives how to say what I mean depending on the language I am using. But: I learned Italian from my girlfriend who in return learned German and we both already spoke English and French resulting in a very eclectic mix of words in our private life. It gave us a headache every now and then.
English is the same as Thai is word usage for heart : heartfelt, whole hearted, heartless etc.
I am more convincing and fun when talking to a girl in English than in Arabic. The latter is a complete mess and not encouraging in that direction
It's much easier for me to talk about my personal feelings in American sign language than in English. Never could figure that out.
Do these emotional differences extend to signed languages, such as ASL?
I speak Arabic English and a bit of German and when I speak German I fell like a servant Austrian painter from 1938-1945
Well of coordinates systems, backthen when people were looking in the sky because of practical reasons (remember, no clocks, no compass, but the sun is every morning in the east and in the west in the evening) these coordinates were of common understandung. As far as I know greeks have for quite a while (always) words right and left.
The Spanish can say el niño rompió la vasa as well as the English could say the vase got broken.
But of course the culture in general which contains not only languages, but also time and past experiences, traditions etc affects the way one thinks. And of course except the group's culture there are also personal experience, abilities, etc.
Very well pointed out !
I do speak 2 languages fluenly English and Spanish. In English i feel more energetic but in Spanish i feel more. strong
I love how in Spanish, you dont "go outside" but "in the free air"
Not really u can say 'salir'= go out 'ir afuera' =go outside/out
Ect the same way an English speaker can say it in different ways such as 'get some fresh air' 🤷🏻♀️
I speak 5 languages and feel my behavior change when I started switching languages
Language does not shape thought. It is the other way around.
Both ways
@@magouliana32name one thing where language shapes the way you think.
@@Hieiououhiaiai let’s take for example the English language with its Greek and Latin history a product of civilizations that mostly prioritized logic and critical thinking.
Because it is based mostly on Greek and Latin words the thought processes created when speaking and writing it are enclosed by and structured by the nature of the words.
The thinking of an English speaker versus a Chinese speaking thinker is different because of the language used and so is their respective listeners.
@@magouliana32 Different in what? Thats too broad. It's just a story and reasoning that sound nice but I doubt there is much truth in it. Give me a specific examples in where they differ.
@@Hieiououhiaiai i am trying to make it simple for you to understand.
I found deeper linguistic example of English vs Chinese language differences it gives you an idea of what I am trying to explain to you.
There are many quite unusual characteristics of the Chinese language compared to most which have historically been spoken around the world. Most of these are shared with surrounding languages in various directions:
isolating word structure based around single-syllable words in which word order is used to designate meaning
a complex tone system whereby tonality differentiates otherwise similar words
a logographic writing system in which different words can have the same sound and tone, being distinguished in speech by context
(in Mandarin) a phonology with “aspirated” and “unaspirated” rather than voiced and voiceless plosives
(in Mandarin) “retroflex” and “alveopalatal” fricatives and affricate phonemes
use of serial verbs to indicate relationships often indicated by adpositions in European languages
frequent use of complex phrases to indicate relationships
“non-tensed” verbal system
adjectives and locational predicates are analogous to verbs and do not require copulas as in most European languages
lack of distinctions between genitives, adjectives and relative clauses
interrogative phrases are placed as they would be in an ordinary declarative sentence, not initially as in most European languages
unique XVO order where X is an oblique phrase, as VO and RelN combined order (see WALS chapters 84 and 96)
My native is Russian , my second is English. I have different characters in these languages. I am more friendly, focused and brave in English and more emotional in Russian.
What application generates such animations?
I always say “The language you think in is the language you’re fluent in.”
Interesting 🤔
I speak 2 languages , i become friendly while speaking English and sarcastic in Arabic
Whenever i switch from english to hindi or vice versa I always feel like my personality slightly changes. I feel more emotional in hindi and more logical in english. I thought it was weird 😅
So interesting.
I'm free-will in Indonesian as native-language
I'm serious and boasted about something in English
I'm more respectful and careful about the other feelings in Japanese
I wonder why Spanish-English bilignual was neurotic on the section Cultural echoes.
I speak french and english, i speak french daily but what i notice is sometimes when i have a strong emotions...my brain will starts thinking in english 😂
If you manage to learn and speak Arabic you will feel with all the features related to all languages. Really unimaginable thing.
nope
What a ridiculous statement.
i don't understand What meaning about perception of time that difference English and Arabic ?
1:22
Anyone else here look at the video title and think of that language sketch from A bit of Fry and Laurie?
3:14 Re neuroticism…who defines it and how? Also, what for? It’s a form of cultural imperialism.
Chatgpt ahh video but really really cool either way
Of course i speak 2 languages(cus i'm not native english speaker😊)
When I speak Tuvian(native) I behave as little girl. I become more emotional, infantile and impulsive. When I speak Russian I behave more serious. I bottle up my emotions, feel more responsibility and try control everything. When I speak English I feel me like a parrot who talks, talks, talks and talks. I feel like people around are tired of my broken English with Russian accent and grammar but temptation to move air is stronger than shame. :_) Ahahahah.
P.s. I was embarrassed when I was learning Russian cuz it has genders for objects. I always feel displeasure when I have to outline gender of smth(I don't have problems with that but I just don't like it). I like English because I don't have to pay attention to genders. Finally, I understood that my native language doesn't have genders too. Ahahah.
I always think my thoughts in English even though It's my second language . I guess It's bcz i always used to watch English tv movies, cartoons snd animes, so it got stuck in my head
as someone who speaks portuguese (spanish's twin brother), english, dutch, and german...
most of the things said about spanish in this video is BS. I never seen a more accusatory person then a spanish/portuguese speaking mother with a pair of flip flops in her hand.
what language is spoken in bangladesh? All travel vlogs i've seen of people going there they were so weird. Like some ppl would just stand in front of the youtuber looking at them without saying anything
I speak Hindi English and Japanese and yes 😂 my behaviour changes with each of them.
And Canadian English is sublime. Therefore, ...
So do bilingual speakers (Itallian-German) from Northern Italian province of Bolzano/South Tyrol have two personalities? Please! And no, absolutely Italians don't see objects as male or female: the grammatical gender has nothing to do with the sexual gender: a car - auto(mobile) or colloquially macchina - is 'female' under a grammatical point of view but Italian speakers are not so perverted as to see female sex organs in it (ask French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian speakers for confirmation whose languages work in the same way). Another incorrect example is the one about Spanish: if a kid breaks a vase accidentally while playing football in a room like shown in the picture, Spanish speakers say the same as in English (el niño rompió el jarrón, underlining who did it, stressing who is responsible, that's to say "el niño"). On the contrary, if someone breaks a glass accidentally while taking it out the washing machine, then they say "El vaso se rompió": in this case a guilt constraint is not established. Is it linguistics, seriously? Its sounds like prejudices and stereotypes. And it's serious that these stereotypes are being spread by an educational channel in a video that talks about openning people's mind.
Have you ever seen the German flag ? It looks like this 🇩🇪