How Language Shapes Thought Claiming that our spoken languages affect how we process information can sound absurd. How can a Spanish speaker process information differently than an English speaker? How can the words we speak affect how clearly we remember events? How can someone be better orientated in space based on how they give directions? Lera Boroditsky, a professor of psychology at Stanford University among other things, discusses her experiments and research that prove how spoken languages affect the brain’s mental process in “Lost in Translation” (469-473). Joan O’C Hamilton, a writer and journalist for multiple magazine companies, wrote “You Say Up, I say Yesterday”, to praise Boroditsky’s research (463-468). And while Guy Deutscher, a writer and researcher of linguistics, doesn’t discuss Boroditsky, he shares a similar viewpoint that language is an important piece in the puzzle for how we view and imagine the world in “Does Your Language Shape How You Think?” (447-54). However, Steven Pinker, a psychology professor at Harvard University, believes that the human brain is not easily influenced by new information in “Mind Over Mass Media” (480-82). Research has shown that the various languages we choose to learn not only unlock unique advantages and disadvantages in life, but that they are also capable of altering our reality, memory, speech, sense of spatial orientation, and perception and appreciation of inanimate objects. REMEMEMBER TO ENSURE ALL AUTHORS ARE CITED
