Hello, everyone
and welcome back to my blog! For those of who you are new, my name is Laura and
I’m a polyglot. Throughout my life, I have studied and spoken a total of 7
languages. In fact, I love languages so much that I’m a college senior majoring
in Italian Studies and minoring in French and Russian Language. But even so, as
much as I enjoy what I study, I acknowledge just how urgent and important it is
to preserve all languages and their respective cultures- not just those that
are commonly studied and are considered “dominant cultures”, or “world
languages.”
Given my
passions, my mom gifted me a book titled Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages, by Guy Deutscher for Christmas. As I
first started reading it, I was a bit hesitant as to whether or not I would
like it, but decided to push through. I’m so glad that I did.
Despite traveling
for 20 days total over break, I finished this book in about a week, which is fast for
a slow reader like me. I simply enjoyed what the author had to say and could
not take my eyes off the page.
This book is about more than just linguistics and language. It’s about the beauty and power of celebrating cultures different from your own. If you read all 239 pages of the book, I can guarantee that you will have a better understanding of how culture influences our thought processes and way of life and vice-versa. You will ultimately have a better grasp on how we think and why we think the way we do.
This book is about more than just linguistics and language. It’s about the beauty and power of celebrating cultures different from your own. If you read all 239 pages of the book, I can guarantee that you will have a better understanding of how culture influences our thought processes and way of life and vice-versa. You will ultimately have a better grasp on how we think and why we think the way we do.
Guy Deutscher
explains these phenomenons primarily through the following concepts: the
perception of color, the perception of space, and how gender influences how we
view the world around us. He is by far one of the most well-read and clever
linguistic authors I have come across so far, as he combines bits of history
and culture to formulate his thoughts about and draw conclusions on how diverse
and rich languages are on all corners of the planet.
This book’s
chapters are quite long, but I didn't mind them, given that each chapter has a very detailed analysis of the study of
linguistics and how it has evolved over time. I especially enjoyed the examples that he gives of languages that I have studied, as I was able to
understand the cultural and historical context behind certain words, or
sentences without having to look up their English translations.
However, I must admit
that my favorite passages were those that mentioned tribal languages and “non-world-languages”
about which you rarely learn in school. After finishing this book, I realized
that though we are more similar to each other than we would think, we should
not discount the millions of ways in which we can perceive the world. It’s not
always black and white, or as standard as you would think. For example, many
languages don’t have cases, two genders, and nouns. Some languages don’t even
have a past, or future tense.
When thinking
about these examples through a western lens, it may seem odd, but once we break
down cultural and linguistic nuances of certain languages, we often find
ourselves questioning how our own mother tongue functions and why it functions
the way it does. These are the kinds of puzzles and mind-games that you will be
able to solve if you get your hands on this book. I promise that you won’t be
disappointed.
Until next time!
// Hasta la próxima! // Jusqu'à la prochaine fois! // Bis zum nächsten Mal! // Alla prossima volta! //
Love,
Laura
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