# How language shapes the way we think | Lera Boroditsky



## Paco Dennis (Nov 20, 2021)

The English language seems to be constructed in such a way that puts emphases on individual responsibility for actions. I think this a large reason for the ascent of English language speaking countries to have male dominated inequality. Maybe we shouldn't take for granted how we flippantly use our words at each other, but realize that there are other ways to communicate what we really mean.


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## palides2021 (Nov 29, 2021)

This was a fascinating talk! Thanks for sharing!

Broditsky and her group studied the different cultures around the world and different languages! She said there's like 7000 languages! I particularly liked the aborigines they studied. Apparently, they talked using words focused on direction, like north and south. Instead of greeting each other with "How are you?" they greeted each other with directions. Some languages vary in their colors. In Russia, they don't have the word for "blue" but use other words like light blue and dark blue. 

Also, different cultures use gender specific words to delineate feminine or masculine words as compared to English. (What I am about to say next comes from my own experience, although I have studied French and they also use different articles like "la" for feminine and 'le" for masculine to delineate gender):
In Greek, for example, by changing the article and the ending of its noun, you can determine if its feminine or masculine. Examples of feminine objects are the cat, woman, mother, or church. Examples of masculine objects are the man, father, postman, or doctor. Neutral objects are the child, baby, food, door, or table. A friend can either be feminine or masculine, depending on their gender. Whereas in English, we use "the" (or "a) all the time in front of all these words and this makes them all neutral. I don't know what the implications of this is, but for someone trying to learn Greek, it does make life more complicated trying to recall if something is feminine or masculine or neutral!


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