Nee's Language Blog

I grew up in a small town in central New York; a small, conservative, God-fearing town full of white people who spoke English and were damn proud of it. I was eleven and moving from 7th to 8th grade - the point in which children in my district were expected to begin learning a foreign language- a terrible policy - at which time we were given the choice between Spanish and Spanish - French having been cut the previous year.

I once wrote an article and asked a friend for her advice on it, to which she responded that it was okay, except I may have some issues with syntax. This sparked my interest and I began to do some research on it. After all, for at least a decade my primary source of income was from translation, from Czech into English, so it was important for me that my writing skills were sharp and on the ball.

It’s well-established that knowing more than one language provides a variety of benefits: people who are bilingual or multilingual are better at problem-solving skills, have larger memory capacity, and have a reduced risk of developing neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. But just how much influence can we ascribe to language? Are different languages simply different systems of words that we use to express the same thoughts? Or can language actually shape the way that we perceive the world? A recent study examining how English and Mandarin speakers conceptualize time suggests that language may be more powerful than we had previously thought.