And people who aren’t part of any of these, do you think you are “missing” something?
Absolutely! A lot of an country’s or region’s culture and history is reflected in their language. In their expressions, vocabulary, loan words, etc.
Spouse is Kenyan and I have learned a fair bit of Swahili. My spouse is fluent in English, Swahili, and their tribal language which I know basically none of.
I never could have imagined how much it would help me understand them better by understanding their language. It has profoundly changed me as a person.
Language is not purely functional, it is woven into who we are and how others perceive us to be. I started learning to simply participate more with them and their family, now I am experiencing my brain be rewritten.
As a person who only spoke English well into adulthood and then is rapidly learning a very different language and culture, I feel like I have a POV that nobody else in my life understands.
Thanks for asking :)
If you mean that “thinking” in another language influences things like your outlook and even reaction to things… you’d be correct. It’s been studied and documented that with every language you learn, you also get something of a personality upgrade that comes with being able to understand and convey concepts specific to that language.
It’s not exactly as elaborate as gaining an whole new pov, but it’s nonetheless similar.
Learning a second language sorta unlocked a new ‘personality’ for me, it’s kinda weird and was pretty huge. My third language didn’t seem to change much? Though it might be because it was german and I don’t feel like I will ever truly master it
Diversifying your means of understanding can feel really rewarding(and challenging).
As for missing something…I think we overestimate how much language shapes thinking. Most meals are just a version of pizza.
Pizza or stew.
Definitely. I spent several years living in a South American country, one that is considered almost “high income” for the region. Uruguay. Now back in the States I still recognize how much less we USA folks could live on if our society was not so pushed by constant consumption by the corporatocracy’s propaganda.
Learning to think in another language. Learning how even everyday things like doors and locks are different. Feeling distant from yet also slowly growing into that new to me culture
Smaller space, more use of renewables for heat, cooking, electric generation. Smaller cars than the giants on US roads that everybody here seems to “need”. Yet many of those very small cars are indeed USA street legal if Hyundai/KIA, GM, etc imported the Brasil-Made Chevrolet Onyx, the Argentina-made small Chevrolets, the South American KIA Picanto, VW “city car” the Volkswagen Up! (Already on EU streets in an even smaller version)
Grocery stores with more home made and store made products. Yet without the massive duplication we have of entire aisles of breakfast cereals, soaps, etc. There was a reasonably broad degree of consumer choices but not the overwhelming and ridiculous amount here.
People shopping in small amounts for what they need that day. Rather than huge hauls from Costco?
And the universal and affordable healthcare. Which was not the single-payer free-at-service nonsense that some US politicians claim everywhere in the world’ has. (Dear Bernie, NOBODY in the world has that!) Paid out of your local social security tax equivalent if employed, or about $60 US per month to buy into it if neither employed nor on benefits. Small “ticket charges” for physicians, labs, imaging, and about a $40 US ticket charge for the hospital ER. ZERO charge for hospital stay and all labs, tests, etc during that stay.
Mandatory voting with real competing parties and coalitions of parties. Military used almost only for UN peacekeeping.
There were frustrating times, and I personally had family reasons to return. But I still miss it, and sometimes envy those of my Uruguayan friends who could afford to travel to the US and my US friends that could afford homes in Uruguay while keeping a home also in the US.
One learns in ones bones that the US way is not the only way.
Brazilian here, your point about cars is very nice, but, as much as compact hatches are still the biggest sellers, Brazil has unfortunately been suffering very hard with the whole “SUVfication” bullshit. It’s to the point where some car manufacturers will just make a small hatch family car slightly larger, give it like 3 more inches of ground clearance, somewhat bigger wheels, and then call it an SUV, and all the soccer moms flock to it like lemmings (this is the entire philosophy behind the Renault Kardian. It’s literally just a Gen III Dacia Sandero with different body panels and lights that is a little taller off the ground).
I’ll tell you my little story. When I was fully immersed in it (you were sent home if you uttered a full sentence in English), I started dreaming in Irish. It was an amazing experience.
My mind had just switched and I loved it. I was 14 at the time and I still remember that. I had some trouble reverting to English after I came home. The more I switched over the years the less hassle it was. I never dreamt in Irish after the initial burst.
Conversely, I know a French lad about twenty years now who’s been immersed in English longer than that and it’s only in the last few years that he mostly dreams in English.
Fluent in three languages. Mathematically speaking, there are enough people with my specific migration route (or even language combination) up until the point I left the US that there should be lots of ppl who think the same… But yes I do feel like my PoV can be a bit unique
The various forms of neurodivergence I have certainly don’t help… like for example I don’t have an internal monologue, which changes my PoV a lot. Actually the neurodivergence probably shaped my PoV even more than the languages; I never really fit in even at where I was born
Speaking from my own personal experience, recall and exposure as a whole give a definitive perspective on the human experience, as well as contributes to those you exonerated along the way.
As a whole I’ve found it isn’t a huge difference as a single event in the grand scheme but it can really add up over time.
Yes because I come from a rural region where most people can only speak French, and I’m the only one of my family that can speak multiple languages. Sometimes it feels like I know different worlds unbeknownst to them.
No because the languages that I know are not rare. There’s millions also speaking those languages so my perspective and experience is far from being unique.
It’s not that lofty, it’s pretty much like the merrowingian put it in the second matrix movie: “cursing in french is like wiping your ass with silk” It’s not limited to cursing, some languages have unique expressions for some things that are more fitting. You have to lean into it and embrace it though, it’s like clothing or food, you have to want it and you have to enjoy it. There is no point in cooking yourself a fancy meal if you hate doing it and don’t particularly value good food. The same is true for practicing language.
I enjoy learning languages in a low pressure way. I didn’t enjoy it particularly in school.
Experience existence…? No, nothing open minded people could not do. I think it’s rather related to broaden your view, get out of your bigger bubble so to say.
See what you take as given can be totally different. So it’s absolutely important and worthwhile to be abroad but I don’t see it in the way you asked.
Also my thoughts are not in any language, that’s just the input/output filter, so to say.
Of course. If you don’t speak or understand the local language, you are missing so much.
