I was born here in the United States. My parents in the other hand were born in “La Capital” Dominican Republic. They only speak Spanish but moving here to the United States, made them understand English. Me, I was speaking Spanish till I began school. Now I talk both languages, Spanish and English. I can read and write both as well. In my house the language that is spoken the most is Spanish, which in school is different. School, I only speak English. For me, I think language is learned based on repetition. For example, the more you hear the language the more you grasp out of it. If you live in an area where Chinese is most spoken, odds are that as the time goes, you’ll learn how to speak Chinese little by little. Everybody’s first language is the language there parents speak because parents are usually the people you are mostly with. In this article, “Does your language shape how you think?” by Guy Deutscher, it is stated that our mother tongue restricts what we are able to think. Deutscher also challenges some assumptions about language.
Some of the assumptions about language were that there are things you can say in English that in Spanish won’t be the same. In other words every language is unique. By saying “I spent yesterday evening with neighbor.” We will wonder if the neighbor is a female or male. If you are speaking French, that’s another story. In the article it states that, “they do not have to consider the sexes of neighbors, friends, teachers and a host of other persons each time they come up in a conversation, whereas speakers of some languages are obliged to do so.” That’s where I say that all languages are unique.
This article left me wondering and left me with questions. For example is the human tongue stronger and more powerful then the human mind? When you come to think about it, both of these things are very powerful and are much needed. This article also made me wonder if the mother tongue restricts what we are able to think. Do we really need these two things to connect in order for them to work?
